Systems and methods for improved remote display protocol for HTML applications

ABSTRACT

Embodiments described herein include systems and methods for encapsulating HTML. A remote browser executing on a server may be configured to provide a document object model (DOM) of HTML of a webpage rendered by the remote browser at the server. A transcoding agent executing in the remote browser may be configured to encapsulate the HTML. The transcoding agent may be configured to send the encapsulated HTML via a remote delivery session to a local browser for rendering. The local browser may execute on a client device and may maintain a DOM for the encapsulated HTML. The transcoding agent may be configured to receive events corresponding to the DOM maintained by the local browser. The remote browser may further be configured to cause the received events to execute on the DOM provided by the remote browser.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present application generally relates to management of HTMLapplications, including but not limited to systems and methods fordelivering HTML content to a client device.

BACKGROUND

As the workforce of an enterprise becomes more mobile and work undervarious conditions, an individual can use one or more client devices,including personal devices, to access network resources such as webapplications. Such devices may be vulnerable or susceptible to malicioussoftware or viruses when a user accesses such network or webapplications or other webpages.

BRIEF SUMMARY

The present disclosure is directed towards systems and methods forencapsulating hypertext markup language (HTML). An agent (also referredto hereinafter as a transcoding agent) encapsulates HTML from a webpage(e.g., at a server). The encapsulated HTML is rendered by a localbrowser (e.g., at a client device). Such a processing pipeline is simpleand efficient, both in terms of loading latency and overall resourceconsumption. Such a processing pipeline can bypass any remote renderingstages (e.g., at the server) and subsequent transcoding of pixels (e.g.,at the client device). Rather, the local browser is utilized directlyfor rendering the encapsulated HTML.

In one aspect, this disclosure is directed to a method for encapsulatingHTML. The method may include providing, by a remote browser hosted on aserver, a document object model (DOM) of HTML of a webpage rendered bythe remote browser at the server. The method may include encapsulating,by a transcoding agent executing in the remote browser, the HTML. Themethod may include sending, by the transcoding agent, the encapsulatedHTML via a remote delivery session to a local browser for rendering. Thelocal browser may execute on a client device and may maintain a DOM forthe encapsulated HTML. The method may include receiving, by thetranscoding agent, events corresponding to the DOM maintained by thelocal browser. The method may include causing, by the remote browser,the received events to execute on the DOM provided by the remotebrowser.

In some embodiments, the method may include encapsulating the HTML bytranscoding the HTML using at least one web components applicationprogramming interface (API). The at least one web components API mayinclude at least one of a shadow document object model or a customelement. In some embodiments, the remote browser includes an embeddedbrowser or a secure browser that provides access to a web application,and the webpage is provided by the web application.

In some embodiments, the method further includes receiving, by theremote browser, the HTML of the webpage, and rendering, by the remotebrowser at the server, the received HTML. In some embodiments, themethod further includes receiving, by the transcoding agent via theremote delivery session, the events corresponding to the DOM maintainedby the local browser.

In some embodiments, the method further includes rendering, by theremote browser at the server, a portion of the HTML into an imagecomprising one or more pixels. In some embodiments, the method furtherincludes sending, by the transcoding agent, the image via the remotedelivery session to the local browser for display at the client device.

In some embodiments, the method further includes encapsulating the HTMLto cause JAVASCRIPT or extensions in the DOM maintained for theencapsulated HTML to be blocked from reacting to the events. In someembodiments, the method further includes encapsulating the HTML to causea call to browser services to be intercepted in the DOM maintained forthe encapsulated HTML. In some embodiments, the method further includescausing the local browser to render at least a portion of theencapsulated HTML into pixels for display at the client device.

In another aspect, this disclosure is directed to a system forencapsulating HTML. The system may include a remote browser executing ona server. The remote browser may be configured to provide a documentobject model (DOM) of HTML of a webpage rendered by the remote browserat the server. The system may include a transcoding agent executing inthe remote browser. The transcoding agent may be configured toencapsulate the HTML. The transcoding agent may be configured to sendthe encapsulated HTML via a remote delivery session to a local browserfor rendering. The local browser may execute on a client device and maymaintain a DOM for the encapsulated HTML. The transcoding agent may beconfigured to receive events corresponding to the DOM maintained by thelocal browser. The remote browser may be configured to cause thereceived events to execute on the DOM provided by the remote browser.

In some embodiments, the transcoding agent is configured to encapsulatethe HTML by transcoding the HTML using at least one web componentsapplication programming interface (API). The at least one web componentsAPI may include at least one of a shadow document object model or acustom element. In some embodiments, the remote browser includes anembedded browser or a secure browser that provides access to a webapplication, and the webpage is provided by the web application.

In some embodiments, the remote browser is further configured to receivethe HTML of the webpage, and to render the received HTML at the server.In some embodiments, the transcoding agent is configured to receive, viathe remote delivery session, the events corresponding to the DOMmaintained by the local browser.

In some embodiments, the remote browser is further configured to render,at the server, a portion of the HTML into an image comprising one ormore pixels. In some embodiments, the transcoding agent is configured tosend the image via the remote delivery session to the local browser fordisplay at the client device.

In some embodiments, the transcoding agent is configured to encapsulatethe HTML to cause JAVASCRIPT or extensions in the DOM maintained for theencapsulated HTML to be blocked from reacting to the events. In someembodiments, the transcoding agent is configured to encapsulate the HTMLto cause a call to browser services to be intercepted in the DOMmaintained for the encapsulated HTML. In some embodiments, the localbrowser renders at least a portion of the encapsulated HTML into pixelsfor display at the client device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The foregoing and other objects, aspects, features, and advantages ofthe present solution will become more apparent and better understood byreferring to the following description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of embodiments of a computing device;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an illustrative embodiment of cloudservices for use in accessing resources;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example embodiment of an enterprisemobility management system;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a system 400 of an embedded browser;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an example embodiment of a system for usinga secure browser;

FIG. 6 is an example representation of an implementation for browserredirection using a secure browser plug-in;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of example embodiment of a system of using asecure browser;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an example embodiment of a system for usinglocal embedded browser(s) and hosted secured browser(s);

FIG. 9 is an example process flow for using local embedded browser(s)and hosted secured browser(s);

FIG. 10 is an example embodiment of a system for managing user access towebpages;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of one example embodiment of a system forencapsulating hypertext markup language (HTML); and

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of one example embodiment of a method forencapsulating HTML.

The features and advantages of the present solution will become moreapparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken inconjunction with the drawings, in which like reference charactersidentify corresponding elements throughout. In the drawings, likereference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar,and/or structurally similar elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

For purposes of reading the description of the various embodimentsbelow, the following descriptions of the sections of the specificationand their respective contents may be helpful:

Section A describes a computing environment which may be useful forpracticing embodiments described herein.

Section B describes systems and methods for an embedded browser.

Section C describes systems and methods for encapsulating hypertextmarkup language (HTML)

A. Computing Environment

Prior to discussing the specifics of embodiments of the systems andmethods detailed herein in Section B, it may be helpful to discuss thecomputing environments in which such embodiments may be deployed.

As shown in FIG. 1, computer 101 may include one or more processors 103,volatile memory 122 (e.g., random access memory (RAM)), non-volatilememory 128 (e.g., one or more hard disk drives (HDDs) or other magneticor optical storage media, one or more solid state drives (SSDs) such asa flash drive or other solid state storage media, one or more hybridmagnetic and solid state drives, and/or one or more virtual storagevolumes, such as a cloud storage, or a combination of such physicalstorage volumes and virtual storage volumes or arrays thereof), userinterface (UI) 123, one or more communications interfaces 118, andcommunication bus 150. User interface 123 may include graphical userinterface (GUI) 124 (e.g., a touchscreen, a display, etc.) and one ormore input/output (I/O) devices 126 (e.g., a mouse, a keyboard, amicrophone, one or more speakers, one or more cameras, one or morebiometric scanners, one or more environmental sensors, one or moreaccelerometers, etc.). Non-volatile memory 128 stores operating system115, one or more applications 116, and data 117 such that, for example,computer instructions of operating system 115 and/or applications 116are executed by processor(s) 103 out of volatile memory 122. In someembodiments, volatile memory 122 may include one or more types of RAMand/or a cache memory that may offer a faster response time than a mainmemory. Data may be entered using an input device of GUI 124 or receivedfrom I/O device(s) 126. Various elements of computer 101 may communicatevia one or more communication buses, shown as communication bus 150.

Computer 101 as shown in FIG. 1 is shown merely as an example, asclients, servers, intermediary and other networking devices and may beimplemented by any computing or processing environment and with any typeof machine or set of machines that may have suitable hardware and/orsoftware capable of operating as described herein. Processor(s) 103 maybe implemented by one or more programmable processors to execute one ormore executable instructions, such as a computer program, to perform thefunctions of the system. As used herein, the term “processor” describescircuitry that performs a function, an operation, or a sequence ofoperations. The function, operation, or sequence of operations may behard coded into the circuitry or soft coded by way of instructions heldin a memory device and executed by the circuitry. A “processor” mayperform the function, operation, or sequence of operations using digitalvalues and/or using analog signals. In some embodiments, the “processor”can be embodied in one or more application specific integrated circuits(ASICs), microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs), graphicsprocessing units (GPUs), microcontrollers, field programmable gatearrays (FPGAs), programmable logic arrays (PLAs), multi-core processors,or general-purpose computers with associated memory. The “processor” maybe analog, digital or mixed-signal. In some embodiments, the “processor”may be one or more physical processors or one or more “virtual” (e.g.,remotely located or “cloud”) processors. A processor including multipleprocessor cores and/or multiple processors multiple processors mayprovide functionality for parallel, simultaneous execution ofinstructions or for parallel, simultaneous execution of one instructionon more than one piece of data.

Communications interfaces 118 may include one or more interfaces toenable computer 101 to access a computer network such as a Local AreaNetwork (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Personal Area Network (PAN),or the Internet through a variety of wired and/or wireless or cellularconnections.

In described embodiments, the computing device 101 may execute anapplication on behalf of a user of a client computing device. Forexample, the computing device 101 may execute a virtual machine, whichprovides an execution session within which applications execute onbehalf of a user or a client computing device, such as a hosted desktopsession. The computing device 101 may also execute a terminal servicessession to provide a hosted desktop environment. The computing device101 may provide access to a computing environment including one or moreof: one or more applications, one or more desktop applications, and oneor more desktop sessions in which one or more applications may execute.

Additional details of the implementation and operation of networkenvironment, computer 101 and client and server computers may be asdescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 9,538,345, issued Jan. 3, 2017 to CitrixSystems, Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the teachings of which arehereby incorporated herein by reference.

B. Systems and Methods for an Embedded Browser

The present disclosure is directed towards systems and methods of anembedded browser. A client application executing on a client device canallow a user to access applications (apps) that are served from and/orhosted on one or more servers, such as web applications andsoftware-as-a-service (SaaS) applications (hereafter sometimes generallyreferred to as network applications). A browser that is embedded orintegrated with the client application can render to the user a networkapplication that is accessed or requested via the client application,and can enable interactivity between the user and the networkapplication. The browser is sometimes referred to as an embeddedbrowser, and the client application with embedded browser (CEB) issometimes referred to as a workspace application. The client applicationcan establish a secure connection to the one or more servers to providean application session for the user to access the network applicationusing the client device and the embedded browser. The embedded browsercan be integrated with the client application to ensure that trafficrelated to the network application is routed through and/or processed inthe client application, which can provide the client application withreal-time visibility to the traffic (e.g., when decrypted through theclient application), and user interactions and behavior. The embeddedbrowser can provide a seamless experience to a user as the networkapplication is requested via the user interface (shared by the clientapplication and the embedded browser) and rendered through the embeddedbrowser within the same user interface.

The client application can terminate one end of a secured connectionestablished with a server of a network application, such as a securesockets layer (SSL) virtual private network (VPN) connection. The clientapplication can receive encrypted traffic from the network application,and can decrypt the traffic before further processing (e.g., renderingby the embedded browser). The client application can monitor thereceived traffic (e.g., in encrypted packet form), and also have fullvisibility into the decrypted data stream and/or the SSL stack. Thisvisibility can allow the client application to perform or facilitatepolicy-based management (e.g., including data loss prevention (DLP)capabilities), application control (e.g., to improve performance,service level), and collection and production of analytics. Forinstance, the local CEB can provide an information technology (IT)administrator with a controlled system for deploying web and SaaSapplications through the CEB, and allow the IT administrator to setpolicies or configurations via the CEB for performing any of theforgoing activities.

Many web and SaaS delivered applications connect from web servers togeneric browsers (e.g., INTERNET EXPLORER, FIREFOX, and so on) of users.Once authenticated, the entire session of such a network application isencrypted. However, in this scenario, an administrator may not havevisibility, analytics, or control of the content entering the networkapplication from the user's digital workspace, or the content leavingthe network application and entering the user's digital workspace.Moreover, content of a network application viewed in a generic browsercan be copied or downloaded (e.g., by a user or program) to potentiallyany arbitrary application or device, resulting in a possible breach indata security.

This present systems and methods can ensure that traffic associated witha network application is channeled through a CEB. By way ofillustration, when a user accesses a SaaS web service with securityassertion markup language (SAML) enabled for instance, the correspondingaccess request can be forwarded to a designated gateway service thatdetermines, checks or verifies if the CEB was used to make the accessrequest. Responsive to determining that a CEB was used to make theaccess request, the gateway service can perform or provideauthentication and single-sign-on (SSO), and can allow the CEB toconnect directly to the SaaS web service. Encryption (e.g., standardencryption) can be used for the application session between the CEB andthe SaaS web service. When the content from the web service isunencrypted in the CEB to the viewed via the embedded browser, and/orwhen input is entered via the CEB, the CEB can provide added services onselective application-related information for control and analytics forinstance. For example, an analytics agent or application programminginterface (API) can be embedded in the CEB to provide or perform theadded services.

The CEB (sometimes referred to as workspace application or receiver) caninteroperate with one or more gateway services, intermediaries and/ornetwork servers (sometimes collectively referred to as cloud services orCitrix Cloud) to provide access to a network application. Features andelements of an environment related to the operation of an embodiment ofcloud services are described below.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of cloud services for use in accessingresources including network applications. The cloud services can includean enterprise mobility technical architecture 200, which can include anaccess gateway 260 in one illustrative embodiment. The architecture canbe used in a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) environment for instance. Thearchitecture can enable a user of a client device 202 (e.g., a mobile orother device) to both access enterprise or personal resources from aclient device 202, and use the client device 202 for personal use. Theuser may access such enterprise resources 204 or enterprise services 208via a client application executing on the client device 202. The usermay access such enterprise resources 204 or enterprise services 208using a client device 202 that is purchased by the user or a clientdevice 202 that is provided by the enterprise to user. The user mayutilize the client device 202 for business use only or for business andpersonal use. The client device may run an iOS operating system, andANDROID operating system, or the like. The enterprise may choose toimplement policies to manage the client device 202. The policies may beimplanted through a firewall or gateway in such a way that the clientdevice may be identified, secured or security verified, and providedselective or full access to the enterprise resources. The policies maybe client device management policies, mobile application managementpolicies, mobile data management policies, or some combination of clientdevice, application, and data management policies. A client device 202that is managed through the application of client device managementpolicies may be referred to as an enrolled device. The client devicemanagement policies can be applied via the client application forinstance.

In some embodiments, the operating system of the client device may beseparated into a managed partition 210 and an unmanaged partition 212.The managed partition 210 may have policies applied to it to secure theapplications running on and data stored in the managed partition. Theapplications running on the managed partition may be secureapplications. In other embodiments, all applications may execute inaccordance with a set of one or more policy files received separate fromthe application, and which define one or more security parameters,features, resource restrictions, and/or other access controls that areenforced by the client device management system when that application isexecuting on the device. By operating in accordance with theirrespective policy file(s), each application may be allowed or restrictedfrom communications with one or more other applications and/orresources, thereby creating a virtual partition. Thus, as used herein, apartition may refer to a physically partitioned portion of memory(physical partition), a logically partitioned portion of memory (logicalpartition), and/or a virtual partition created as a result ofenforcement of one or more policies and/or policy files across multipleapps as described herein (virtual partition). Stated differently, byenforcing policies on managed apps, those apps may be restricted to onlybe able to communicate with other managed apps and trusted enterpriseresources, thereby creating a virtual partition that is not accessibleby unmanaged apps and devices.

The secure applications may be email applications, web browsingapplications, software-as-a-service (SaaS) access applications, WINDOWSApplication access applications, and the like. The client applicationcan include a secure application launcher 218. The secure applicationsmay be secure native applications 214, secure remote applications 222executed by the secure application launcher 218, virtualizationapplications 226 executed by the secure application launcher 218, andthe like. The secure native applications 214 may be wrapped by a secureapplication wrapper 220. The secure application wrapper 220 may includeintegrated policies that are executed on the client device 202 when thesecure native application is executed on the device. The secureapplication wrapper 220 may include meta-data that points the securenative application 214 running on the client device 202 to the resourceshosted at the enterprise that the secure native application 214 mayrequire to complete the task requested upon execution of the securenative application 214. The secure remote applications 222 executed by asecure application launcher 218 may be executed within the secureapplication launcher application 218. The virtualization applications226 executed by a secure application launcher 218 may utilize resourceson the client device 202, at the enterprise resources 204, and the like.The resources used on the client device 202 by the virtualizationapplications 226 executed by a secure application launcher 218 mayinclude user interaction resources, processing resources, and the like.The user interaction resources may be used to collect and transmitkeyboard input, mouse input, camera input, tactile input, audio input,visual input, gesture input, and the like. The processing resources maybe used to present a user interface, process data received from theenterprise resources 204, and the like. The resources used at theenterprise resources 204 by the virtualization applications 226 executedby a secure application launcher 218 may include user interfacegeneration resources, processing resources, and the like. The userinterface generation resources may be used to assemble a user interface,modify a user interface, refresh a user interface, and the like. Theprocessing resources may be used to create information, readinformation, update information, delete information, and the like. Forexample, the virtualization application may record user interactionsassociated with a graphical user interface (GUI) and communicate them toa server application where the server application may use the userinteraction data as an input to the application operating on the server.In this arrangement, an enterprise may elect to maintain the applicationon the server side as well as data, files, etc., associated with theapplication. While an enterprise may elect to “mobilize” someapplications in accordance with the principles herein by securing themfor deployment on the client device (e.g., via the client application),this arrangement may also be elected for certain applications. Forexample, while some applications may be secured for use on the clientdevice, others might not be prepared or appropriate for deployment onthe client device so the enterprise may elect to provide the mobile useraccess to the unprepared applications through virtualization techniques.As another example, the enterprise may have large complex applicationswith large and complex data sets (e.g., material resource planningapplications) where it would be very difficult, or otherwiseundesirable, to customize the application for the client device so theenterprise may elect to provide access to the application throughvirtualization techniques. As yet another example, the enterprise mayhave an application that maintains highly secured data (e.g., humanresources data, customer data, engineering data) that may be deemed bythe enterprise as too sensitive for even the secured mobile environmentso the enterprise may elect to use virtualization techniques to permitmobile access to such applications and data. An enterprise may elect toprovide both fully secured and fully functional applications on theclient device. The enterprise can use a client application, which caninclude a virtualization application, to allow access to applicationsthat are deemed more properly operated on the server side. In anembodiment, the virtualization application may store some data, files,etc., on the mobile phone in one of the secure storage locations. Anenterprise, for example, may elect to allow certain information to bestored on the phone while not permitting other information.

In connection with the virtualization application, as described herein,the client device may have a virtualization application that is designedto present GUIs and then record user interactions with the GUI. Thevirtualization application may communicate the user interactions to theserver side to be used by the server side application as userinteractions with the application. In response, the application on theserver side may transmit back to the client device a new GUI. Forexample, the new GUI may be a static page, a dynamic page, an animation,or the like, thereby providing access to remotely located resources.

The secure applications may access data stored in a secure datacontainer 228 in the managed partition 210 of the client device. Thedata secured in the secure data container may be accessed by the securewrapped applications 214, applications executed by a secure applicationlauncher 222, virtualization applications 226 executed by a secureapplication launcher 218, and the like. The data stored in the securedata container 228 may include files, databases, and the like. The datastored in the secure data container 228 may include data restricted to aspecific secure application 230, shared among secure applications 232,and the like. Data restricted to a secure application may include securegeneral data 234 and highly secure data 238. Secure general data may usea strong form of encryption such as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)128-bit encryption or the like, while highly secure data 238 may use avery strong form of encryption such as AES 256-bit encryption. Datastored in the secure data container 228 may be deleted from the deviceupon receipt of a command from the device manager 224. The secureapplications may have a dual-mode option 240. The dual mode option 240may present the user with an option to operate the secured applicationin an unsecured or unmanaged mode. In an unsecured or unmanaged mode,the secure applications may access data stored in an unsecured datacontainer 242 on the unmanaged partition 212 of the client device 202.The data stored in an unsecured data container may be personal data 244.The data stored in an unsecured data container 242 may also be accessedby unsecured applications 248 that are running on the unmanagedpartition 212 of the client device 202. The data stored in an unsecureddata container 242 may remain on the client device 202 when the datastored in the secure data container 228 is deleted from the clientdevice 202. An enterprise may want to delete from the client deviceselected or all data, files, and/or applications owned, licensed orcontrolled by the enterprise (enterprise data) while leaving orotherwise preserving personal data, files, and/or applications owned,licensed or controlled by the user (personal data). This operation maybe referred to as a selective wipe. With the enterprise and personaldata arranged in accordance to the aspects described herein, anenterprise may perform a selective wipe.

The client device 202 may connect to enterprise resources 204 andenterprise services 208 at an enterprise, to the public Internet 248,and the like. The client device may connect to enterprise resources 204and enterprise services 208 through virtual private network connections.The virtual private network connections, also referred to as microVPN orapplication-specific VPN, may be specific to particular applications(e.g., as illustrated by microVPNs 250), particular devices, particularsecured areas on the client device (e.g., as illustrated by O/S VPN252), and the like. For example, each of the wrapped applications in thesecured area of the phone may access enterprise resources through anapplication specific VPN such that access to the VPN would be grantedbased on attributes associated with the application, possibly inconjunction with user or device attribute information. The virtualprivate network connections may carry MICROSOFT Exchange traffic,MICROSOFT Active Directory traffic, HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)traffic, HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) traffic, applicationmanagement traffic, and the like. The virtual private networkconnections may support and enable single-sign-on authenticationprocesses 254. The single-sign-on processes may allow a user to providea single set of authentication credentials, which are then verified byan authentication service 258. The authentication service 258 may thengrant to the user access to multiple enterprise resources 204, withoutrequiring the user to provide authentication credentials to eachindividual enterprise resource 204.

The virtual private network connections may be established and managedby an access gateway 260. The access gateway 260 may include performanceenhancement features that manage, accelerate, and improve the deliveryof enterprise resources 204 to the client device 202. The access gatewaymay also re-route traffic from the client device 202 to the publicInternet 248, enabling the client device 202 to access publiclyavailable and unsecured applications that run on the public Internet248. The client device may connect to the access gateway via a transportnetwork 262. The transport network 262 may use one or more transportprotocols and may be a wired network, wireless network, cloud network,local area network, metropolitan area network, wide area network, publicnetwork, private network, and the like.

The enterprise resources 204 may include email servers, file sharingservers, SaaS/Web applications, Web application servers, WINDOWSapplication servers, and the like. Email servers may include Exchangeservers, LOTUS NOTES servers, and the like. File sharing servers mayinclude SHAREFILE servers, and the like. SaaS applications may includeSALESFORCE, and the like. WINDOWS application servers may include anyapplication server that is built to provide applications that areintended to run on a local WINDOWS operating system, and the like. Theenterprise resources 204 may be premise-based resources, cloud basedresources, and the like. The enterprise resources 204 may be accessed bythe client device 202 directly or through the access gateway 260. Theenterprise resources 204 may be accessed by the client device 202 via atransport network 262. The transport network 262 may be a wired network,wireless network, cloud network, local area network, metropolitan areanetwork, wide area network, public network, private network, and thelike.

Cloud services can include an access gateway 260 and/or enterpriseservices 208. The enterprise services 208 may include authenticationservices 258, threat detection services 264, device manager services224, file sharing services 268, policy manager services 270, socialintegration services 272, application controller services 274, and thelike. Authentication services 258 may include user authenticationservices, device authentication services, application authenticationservices, data authentication services and the like. Authenticationservices 258 may use certificates. The certificates may be stored on theclient device 202, by the enterprise resources 204, and the like. Thecertificates stored on the client device 202 may be stored in anencrypted location on the client device, the certificate may betemporarily stored on the client device 202 for use at the time ofauthentication, and the like. Threat detection services 264 may includeintrusion detection services, unauthorized access attempt detectionservices, and the like. Unauthorized access attempt detection servicesmay include unauthorized attempts to access devices, applications, data,and the like. Device management services 224 may include configuration,provisioning, security, support, monitoring, reporting, anddecommissioning services. File sharing services 268 may include filemanagement services, file storage services, file collaboration services,and the like. Policy manager services 270 may include device policymanager services, application policy manager services, data policymanager services, and the like. Social integration services 272 mayinclude contact integration services, collaboration services,integration with social networks such as FACEBOOK, TWITTER, andLINKEDIN, and the like. Application controller services 274 may includemanagement services, provisioning services, deployment services,assignment services, revocation services, wrapping services, and thelike.

The enterprise mobility technical architecture 200 may include anapplication store 278. The application store 278 may include unwrappedapplications 280, pre-wrapped applications 282, and the like.Applications may be populated in the application store 278 from theapplication controller 274. The application store 278 may be accessed bythe client device 202 through the access gateway 260, through the publicInternet 248, or the like. The application store may be provided with anintuitive and easy to use User Interface.

A software development kit 284 may provide a user the capability tosecure applications selected by the user by providing a secure wrapperaround the application. An application that has been wrapped using thesoftware development kit 284 may then be made available to the clientdevice 202 by populating it in the application store 278 using theapplication controller 274.

The enterprise mobility technical architecture 200 may include amanagement and analytics capability. The management and analyticscapability may provide information related to how resources are used,how often resources are used, and the like. Resources may includedevices, applications, data, and the like. How resources are used mayinclude which devices download which applications, which applicationsaccess which data, and the like. How often resources are used mayinclude how often an application has been downloaded, how many times aspecific set of data has been accessed by an application, and the like.

FIG. 3 depicts is an illustrative embodiment of an enterprise mobilitymanagement system 300. Some of the components of the mobility managementsystem 200 described above with reference to FIG. 2 have been omittedfor the sake of simplicity. The architecture of the system 300 depictedin FIG. 3 is similar in many respects to the architecture of the system200 described above with reference to FIG. 2 and may include additionalfeatures not mentioned above.

In this case, the left hand side represents an enrolled client device302 with a client agent 304, which interacts with gateway server 306 toaccess various enterprise resources 308 and services 309 such as Web orSasS applications, Exchange, SHAREPOINT, public-key infrastructure (PKI)Resources, Kerberos Resources, Certificate Issuance service, as shown onthe right hand side above. The gateway server 306 can includeembodiments of features and functionalities of the cloud services, suchas access gateway 260 and application controller functionality. Althoughnot specifically shown, the client agent 304 may be part of, and/orinteract with the client application which can operate as an enterpriseapplication store (storefront) for the selection and/or downloading ofnetwork applications.

The client agent 304 can act as a UI (user interface) intermediary forWINDOWS apps/desktops hosted in an Enterprise data center, which areaccessed using the High-Definition User Experience (HDX) or IndependentComputing Architecture (ICA) display remoting protocol. The client agent304 can also support the installation and management of nativeapplications on the client device 302, such as native iOS or ANDROIDapplications. For example, the managed applications 310 (mail, browser,wrapped application) shown in the figure above are native applicationsthat execute locally on the device. Client agent 304 and applicationmanagement framework of this architecture act to provide policy drivenmanagement capabilities and features such as connectivity and SSO(single sign on) to enterprise resources/services 308. The client agent304 handles primary user authentication to the enterprise, for instanceto access gateway (AG) with SSO to other gateway server components. Theclient agent 304 obtains policies from gateway server 306 to control thebehavior of the managed applications 310 on the client device 302.

The Secure interprocess communication (IPC) links 312 between the nativeapplications 310 and client agent 304 represent a management channel,which allows client agent to supply policies to be enforced by theapplication management framework 314 “wrapping” each application. TheIPC channel 312 also allows client agent 304 to supply credential andauthentication information that enables connectivity and SSO toenterprise resources 308. Finally the IPC channel 312 allows theapplication management framework 314 to invoke user interface functionsimplemented by client agent 304, such as online and offlineauthentication.

Communications between the client agent 304 and gateway server 306 areessentially an extension of the management channel from the applicationmanagement framework 314 wrapping each native managed application 310.The application management framework 314 requests policy informationfrom client agent 304, which in turn requests it from gateway server306. The application management framework 314 requests authentication,and client agent 304 logs into the gateway services part of gatewayserver 306 (also known as NetScaler access gateway). Client agent 304may also call supporting services on gateway server 306, which mayproduce input material to derive encryption keys for the local datavaults 316, or provide client certificates which may enable directauthentication to PKI protected resources, as more fully explainedbelow.

In more detail, the application management framework 314 “wraps” eachmanaged application 310. This may be incorporated via an explicit buildstep, or via a post-build processing step. The application managementframework 314 may “pair” with client agent 304 on first launch of anapplication 310 to initialize the Secure IPC channel and obtain thepolicy for that application. The application management framework 314may enforce relevant portions of the policy that apply locally, such asthe client agent login dependencies and some of the containment policiesthat restrict how local OS services may be used, or how they mayinteract with the application 310.

The application management framework 314 may use services provided byclient agent 304 over the Secure IPC channel 312 to facilitateauthentication and internal network access. Key management for theprivate and shared data vaults 316 (containers) may be also managed byappropriate interactions between the managed applications 310 and clientagent 304. Vaults 316 may be available only after online authentication,or may be made available after offline authentication if allowed bypolicy. First use of vaults 316 may require online authentication, andoffline access may be limited to at most the policy refresh periodbefore online authentication is again required.

Network access to internal resources may occur directly from individualmanaged applications 310 through access gateway 306. The applicationmanagement framework 314 is responsible for orchestrating the networkaccess on behalf of each application 310. Client agent 304 mayfacilitate these network connections by providing suitable time limitedsecondary credentials obtained following online authentication. Multiplemodes of network connection may be used, such as reverse web proxyconnections and end-to-end VPN-style tunnels 318.

The Mail and Browser managed applications 310 can have special statusand may make use of facilities that might not be generally available toarbitrary wrapped applications. For example, the Mail application mayuse a special background network access mechanism that allows it toaccess Exchange over an extended period of time without requiring a fullAG logon. The Browser application may use multiple private data vaultsto segregate different kinds of data.

This architecture can support the incorporation of various othersecurity features. For example, gateway server 306 (including itsgateway services) in some cases might not need to validate activedirectory (AD) passwords. It can be left to the discretion of anenterprise whether an AD password is used as an authentication factorfor some users in some situations. Different authentication methods maybe used if a user is online or offline (i.e., connected or not connectedto a network).

Step up authentication is a feature wherein gateway server 306 mayidentify managed native applications 310 that are allowed to have accessto more sensitive data using strong authentication, and ensure thataccess to these applications is only permitted after performingappropriate authentication, even if this means a re-authentication isrequested from the user after a prior weaker level of login.

Another security feature of this solution is the encryption of the datavaults 316 (containers) on the client device 302. The vaults 316 may beencrypted so that all on-device data including clipboard/cache data,files, databases, and configurations are protected. For on-line vaults,the keys may be stored on the server (gateway server 306), and foroff-line vaults, a local copy of the keys may be protected by a userpassword or biometric validation. When data is stored locally on thedevice 302 in the secure container 316, it is preferred that a minimumof AES 256 encryption algorithm be utilized.

Other secure container features may also be implemented. For example, alogging feature may be included, wherein all security events happeninginside an application 310 are logged and reported to the backend. Datawiping may be supported, such as if the application 310 detectstampering, associated encryption keys may be written over with randomdata, leaving no hint on the file system that user data was destroyed.Screenshot protection is another feature, where an application mayprevent any data from being stored in screenshots. For example, the keywindow's hidden property may be set to YES. This may cause whatevercontent is currently displayed on the screen to be hidden, resulting ina blank screenshot where any content would normally reside.

Local data transfer may be prevented, such as by preventing any datafrom being locally transferred outside the application container, e.g.,by copying it or sending it to an external application. A keyboard cachefeature may operate to disable the autocorrect functionality forsensitive text fields. SSL certificate validation may be operable so theapplication specifically validates the server SSL certificate instead ofit being stored in the keychain. An encryption key generation featuremay be used such that the key used to encrypt data on the device isgenerated using a passphrase or biometric data supplied by the user (ifoffline access is required). It may be XORed with another key randomlygenerated and stored on the server side if offline access is notrequired. Key Derivation functions may operate such that keys generatedfrom the user password use KDFs (key derivation functions, notablyPassword-Based Key Derivation Function 2 (PBKDF2)) rather than creatinga cryptographic hash of it. The latter makes a key susceptible to bruteforce or dictionary attacks.

Further, one or more initialization vectors may be used in encryptionmethods. An initialization vector might cause multiple copies of thesame encrypted data to yield different cipher text output, preventingboth replay and cryptanalytic attacks. This may also prevent an attackerfrom decrypting any data even with a stolen encryption key. Further,authentication then decryption may be used, wherein application data isdecrypted only after the user has authenticated within the application.Another feature may relate to sensitive data in memory, which may bekept in memory (and not in disk) only when it's needed. For example,login credentials may be wiped from memory after login, and encryptionkeys and other data inside objective-C instance variables are notstored, as they may be easily referenced. Instead, memory may bemanually allocated for these.

An inactivity timeout may be implemented via the CEB, wherein after apolicy-defined period of inactivity, a user session is terminated.

Data leakage from the application management framework 314 may beprevented in other ways. For example, when an application 310 is put inthe background, the memory may be cleared after a predetermined(configurable) time period. When backgrounded, a snapshot may be takenof the last displayed screen of the application to fasten theforegrounding process. The screenshot may contain confidential data andhence should be cleared.

Another security feature relates to the use of an OTP (one timepassword) 320 without the use of an AD (active directory) 322 passwordfor access to one or more applications. In some cases, some users do notknow (or are not permitted to know) their AD password, so these usersmay authenticate using an OTP 320 such as by using a hardware OTP systemlike SecurID (OTPs may be provided by different vendors also, such asEntrust or Gemalto). In some cases, after a user authenticates with auser ID, a text is sent to the user with an OTP 320. In some cases, thismay be implemented only for online use, with a prompt being a singlefield.

An offline password may be implemented for offline authentication forthose applications 310 for which offline use is permitted via enterprisepolicy. For example, an enterprise may want storefront to be accessed inthis manner. In this case, the client agent 304 may require the user toset a custom offline password and the AD password is not used. Gatewayserver 306 may provide policies to control and enforce passwordstandards with respect to the minimum length, character classcomposition, and age of passwords, such as described by the standardWINDOWS Server password complexity requirements, although theserequirements may be modified.

Another feature relates to the enablement of a client side certificatefor certain applications 310 as secondary credentials (for the purposeof accessing PKI protected web resources via the application managementframework micro VPN feature). For example, an application may utilizesuch a certificate. In this case, certificate-based authentication usingACTIVESYNC protocol may be supported, wherein a certificate from theclient agent 304 may be retrieved by gateway server 306 and used in akeychain. Each managed application may have one associated clientcertificate, identified by a label that is defined in gateway server306.

Gateway server 306 may interact with an Enterprise special purpose webservice to support the issuance of client certificates to allow relevantmanaged applications to authenticate to internal PKI protectedresources.

The client agent 304 and the application management framework 314 may beenhanced to support obtaining and using client certificates forauthentication to internal PKI protected network resources. More thanone certificate may be supported, such as to match various levels ofsecurity and/or separation requirements. The certificates may be used bythe Mail and Browser managed applications, and ultimately by arbitrarywrapped applications (provided those applications use web service stylecommunication patterns where it is reasonable for the applicationmanagement framework to mediate https requests).

Application management client certificate support on iOS may rely onimporting public-key cryptography standards (PKCS) 12 BLOB (Binary LargeObject) into the iOS keychain in each managed application for eachperiod of use. Application management framework client certificatesupport may use a HTTPS implementation with private in-memory keystorage. The client certificate might never be present in the iOSkeychain and might not be persisted except potentially in “online-only”data value that is strongly protected.

Mutual SSL or TLS may also be implemented to provide additional securityby requiring that a client device 302 is authenticated to theenterprise, and vice versa. Virtual smart cards for authentication togateway server 306 may also be implemented.

Both limited and full Kerberos support may be additional features. Thefull support feature relates to an ability to do full Kerberos login toActive Directory (AD) 322, using an AD password or trusted clientcertificate, and obtain Kerberos service tickets to respond to HTTPNegotiate authentication challenges. The limited support feature relatesto constrained delegation in Citrix Access Gateway Enterprise Edition(AGEE), where AGEE supports invoking Kerberos protocol transition so itcan obtain and use Kerberos service tickets (subject to constraineddelegation) in response to HTTP Negotiate authentication challenges.This mechanism works in reverse web proxy (aka corporate virtual privatenetwork (CVPN)) mode, and when http (but not https) connections areproxied in VPN and MicroVPN mode.

Another feature relates to application container locking and wiping,which may automatically occur upon jail-break or rooting detections, andoccur as a pushed command from administration console, and may includeremote wipe functionality even when an application 310 is not running.

A multi-site architecture or configuration of enterprise applicationstore and an application controller may be supported that allows usersto be service from one of several different locations in case offailure.

In some cases, managed applications 310 may be allowed to access acertificate and private key via an API (example OpenSSL). Trustedmanaged applications 310 of an enterprise may be allowed to performspecific Public Key operations with an application's client certificateand private key. Various use cases may be identified and treatedaccordingly, such as when an application behaves like a browser and nocertificate access is used, when an application reads a certificate for“who am I,” when an application uses the certificate to build a securesession token, and when an application uses private keys for digitalsigning of important data (e.g., transaction log) or for temporary dataencryption.

Referring now to FIG. 4, depicted is a block diagram of a system 400 ofan embedded browser. In brief overview, the system 400 may include aclient device 402 with a digital workspace for a user, a clientapplication 404, cloud services 408 operating on at least one networkdevice 432, and network applications 406 served from and/or hosted onone or more servers 430. The client application 404 can for instanceinclude at least one of: an embedded browser 410, a networking agent412, a cloud services agent 414, a remote session agent 416, or a securecontainer 418. The cloud services 408 can for instance include at leastone of: secure browser(s) 420, an access gateway 422 (or CIS, e.g., forregistering and/or authenticating the client application and/or user),or analytics services 424 (or CAS, e.g., for receiving information fromthe client application for analytics). The network applications 406 caninclude sanctioned applications 426 and non-sanctioned applications 428.

Each of the above-mentioned elements or entities is implemented inhardware, or a combination of hardware and software, in one or moreembodiments. Each component of the system 400 may be implemented usinghardware or a combination of hardware or software detailed above inconnection with FIG. 1. For instance, each of these elements or entitiescan include any application, program, library, script, task, service,process or any type and form of executable instructions executing onhardware of the client device 402, the at least one network device 432and/or the one or more servers 430. The hardware includes circuitry suchas one or more processors in one or more embodiments. For example, theat least one network device 432 and/or the one or more servers 430 caninclude any of the elements of a computing device described above inconnection with at least FIG. 1 for instance.

The client device 402 can include any embodiment of a computing devicedescribed above in connection with at least FIG. 1 for instance. Theclient device 402 can include any user device such as a desktopcomputer, a laptop computer, a tablet device, a smart phone, or anyother mobile or personal device. The client device 402 can include adigital workspace of a user, which can include file system(s), cache ormemory (e.g., including electronic clipboard(s)), container(s),application(s) and/or other resources on the client device 402. Thedigital workspace can include or extend to one or more networksaccessible by the client device 402, such as an intranet and theInternet, including file system(s) and/or other resources accessible viathe one or more networks. A portion of the digital workspace can besecured via the use of the client application 404 with embedded browser410 (CEB) for instance. The secure portion of the digital workspace caninclude for instance file system(s), cache or memory (e.g., includingelectronic clipboard(s)), application(s), container(s) and/or otherresources allocated to the CEB, and/or allocated by the CEB to networkapplication(s) 406 accessed via the CEB. The secure portion of thedigital workspace can also include resources specified by the CEB (viaone or more policies) for inclusion in the secure portion of the digitalworkspace (e.g., a particular local application can be specified via apolicy to be allowed to receive data obtained from a networkapplication).

The client application 404 can include one or more components, such asan embedded browser 410, a networking agent 412, a cloud services agent414 (sometimes referred to as management agent), a remote session agent416 (sometimes referred to as HDX engine), and/or a secure container 418(sometimes referred to as secure cache container). One or more of thecomponents can be installed as part of a software build or release ofthe client application 404 or CEB, or separately acquired or downloadedand installed/integrated into an existing installation of the clientapplication 404 or CEB for instance. For instance, the client device maydownload or otherwise receive the client application 404 (or anycomponent) from the network device(s) 432. In some embodiments, theclient device may send a request for the client application 404 to thenetwork device(s) 432. For example, a user of the client device caninitiate a request, download and/or installation of the clientapplication. The network device(s) 432 in turn may send the clientapplication to the client device. In some embodiments, the networkdevice(s) 432 may send a setup or installation application for theclient application to the client device. Upon receipt, the client devicemay install the client application onto a hard disk of the clientdevice. In some embodiments, the client device may run the setupapplication to unpack or decompress a package of the client application.In some embodiments, the client application may be an extension (e.g.,an add-on, an add-in, an applet or a plug-in) to another application(e.g., a networking agent 412) installed on the client device. Theclient device may install the client application to interface orinter-operate with the pre-installed application. In some embodiments,the client application may be a standalone application. The clientdevice may install the client application to execute as a separateprocess.

The embedded browser 410 can include elements and functionalities of aweb browser application or engine. The embedded browser 410 can locallyrender network application(s) as a component or extension of the clientapplication. For instance, the embedded browser 410 can render aSaaS/Web application inside the CEB which can provide the CEB with fullvisibility and control of the application session. The embedded browsercan be embedded or incorporated into the client application via anymeans, such as direct integration (e.g., programming language or scriptinsertion) into the executable code of the client application, or viaplugin installation. For example, the embedded browser can include aChromium based browser engine or other type of browser engine, that canbe embedded into the client application, using the Chromium embeddedframework (CEF) for instance. The embedded browser can include aHTML5-based layout graphical user interface (GUI). The embedded browsercan provide HTML rendering and JAVASCRIPT support to a clientapplication incorporating various programming languages. For example,elements of the embedded browser can bind to a client applicationincorporating C, C++, DELPHI, Go, JAVA, .NET/Mono, VISUAL BASIC 6.0,and/or PYTHON.

In some embodiments, the embedded browser comprises a plug-in installedon the client application. For example, the plug-in can include one ormore components. One such component can be an ActiveX control or JAVAcontrol or any other type and/or form of executable instructions capableof loading into and executing in the client application. For example,the client application can load and run an Active X control of theembedded browser, such as in a memory space or context of the clientapplication. In some embodiments, the embedded browser can be installedas an extension on the client application, and a user can choose toenable or disable the plugin or extension. The embedded browser (e.g.,via the plugin or extension) can form or operate as a secured browserfor securing, using and/or accessing resources within the securedportion of the digital workspace.

The embedded browser can incorporate code and functionalities beyondthat available or possible in a standard or typical browser. Forinstance, the embedded browser can bind with or be assigned with asecured container 418, to define at least part of the secured portion ofa user's digital workspace. The embedded browser can bind with or beassigned with a portion of the client device's cache to form a securedclipboard (e.g., local to the client device, or extendable to otherdevices), that can be at least part of the secured container 418. Theembedded browser can be integrated with the client application to ensurethat traffic related to network applications is routed through and/orprocessed in the client application, which can provide the clientapplication with real-time visibility to the traffic (e.g., whendecrypted through the client application). This visibility to thetraffic can allow the client application to perform or facilitatepolicy-based management (e.g., including data loss prevention (DLP)capabilities), application control, and collection and production ofanalytics.

In some embodiments, the embedded browser incorporates one or more othercomponents of the client application 404, such as the cloud servicesagent 414, remote session agent 416 and/or secure container 418. Forinstance, a user can use the cloud services agent 414 of the embeddedbrowser to interoperate with the access gateway 422 (sometimes referredto as CIS) to access a network application. For example, the cloudservices agent 414 can execute within the embedded browser, and canreceive and transmit navigation commands from the embedded browser to ahosted network application. The cloud services agent can use a remotepresentation protocol to display the output generated by the networkapplication to the embedded browser. For example, the cloud servicesagent 414 can include a HTML5 web client that allows end users to accessremote desktops and/or applications on the embedded browser.

The client application 404 and CEB operate on the application layer ofthe operational (OSI) stack of the client device. The client application404 can include and/or execute one or more agents that interoperate withthe cloud services 408. The client application 404 can receive, obtain,retrieve or otherwise access various policies (e.g., an enterprise'scustom, specified or internal policies or rules) and/or data (e.g., froman access gateway 422 and/or network device(s) of cloud services 408, orother server(s), that may be managed by the enterprise). The clientapplication can access the policies and/or data to control and/or managea network application (e.g., a SaaS, web or remote-hosted application).Control and/or management of a network application can include controland/or management of various aspects of the network application, such asaccess control, session delivery, available features or functions,service level, traffic management and monitoring, and so on. The networkapplication can be from a provider or vendor of the enterprise (e.g.,SALESFORCE.com, SAP, MICROSOFT Office 365), from the enterprise itself,or from another entity (e.g., DROPBOX or GMAIL service).

For example, the cloud services agent 414 can provide policy drivenmanagement capabilities and features related to the use and/or access ofnetwork applications. For example, the cloud services agent 414 caninclude a policy engine to apply one or more policies (e.g., receivedfrom cloud services) to determine access control and/or connectivity toresources such as network applications. When a session is establishedbetween the client application and a server 430 providing a SaaSapplication for instance, the cloud services agent 414 can apply one ormore policies to control traffic levels and/or traffic types (or otheraspects) of the session, for instance to manage a service level of theSaaS application. Additional aspects of the application traffic that canbe controlled or managed can include encryption level and/or encryptiontype applied to the traffic, level of interactivity allowed for a user,limited access to certain features of the network application (e.g.,print-screen, save, edit or copy functions), restrictions to use ortransfer of data obtained from the network application, limit concurrentaccess to two or more network applications, limit access to certain filerepositories or other resources, and so on.

The cloud services agent 414 can convey or feed information to analyticsservices 424 of the cloud services 408, such as information about SaaSinteraction events visible to the CEB. Such a configuration using theCEB can monitor or capture information for analytics without having aninline device or proxy located between the client device and theserver(s) 430, or using a SaaS API gateway ‘out-of-band’ approach. Insome embodiments, the cloud services agent 414 does not execute withinthe embedded browser. In these embodiments, a user can similarly use thecloud services agent 414 to interoperate with the access gateway (orCIS) 422 to access a network application. For instance, the cloudservices agent 414 can register and/or authenticate with the accessgateway (or CIS) 422, and can obtain a list of the network applicationsfrom the access gateway (or CIS) 422. The cloud services agent 414 caninclude and/or operate as an application store (or storefront) for userselection and/or downloading of network applications. Upon logging in toaccess a network application, the cloud services agent 414 can interceptand transmit navigation commands from the embedded browser to thenetwork application. The cloud services agent can use a remotepresentation protocol to display the output generated by the networkapplication to the embedded browser. For example, the cloud servicesagent 414 can include a HTML5 web client that allows end users to accessremote desktops and/or applications on the embedded browser.

In some embodiments, the cloud services agent 414 provides single signon (SSO) capability for the user and/or client device to access aplurality of network applications. The cloud services agent 414 canperform user authentication to access network applications as well asother network resources and services, by communicating with the accessgateway 422 for instance. For example, the cloud services agent 414 canauthenticate or register with the access gateway 422, to access othercomponents of the cloud services 408 and/or the network applications406. Responsive to the authentication or registration, the accessgateway 422 can perform authentication and/or SSO for (or on behalf of)the user and/or client application, with the network applications.

The client application 404 can include a networking agent 412. Thenetworking agent 412 is sometimes referred to as a software-defined widearea network (SD-WAN) agent, mVPN agent, or microVPN agent. Thenetworking agent 412 can establish or facilitate establishment of anetwork connection between the client application and one or moreresources (e.g., server 430 serving a network application). Thenetworking agent 412 can perform handshaking for a requested connectionfrom the client application to access a network application, and canestablish the requested connection (e.g., secure or encryptedconnection). The networking agent 412 can connect to enterpriseresources (including services) for instance via a virtual privatenetwork (VPN). For example, the networking agent 412 can establish asecure socket layer (SSL) VPN between the client application and aserver 430 providing the network application 406. The VPN connections,sometimes referred to as microVPN or application-specific VPN, may bespecific to particular network applications, particular devices,particular secured areas on the client device, and the like, forinstance as discussed above in connection with FIG. 3. Such VPNconnections can carry MICROSOFT Exchange traffic, MICROSOFT ActiveDirectory traffic, HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) traffic, HyperTextTransfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) traffic, as some examples.

The remote session agent 416 (sometimes referred to as HDX engine) caninclude features of the client agent 304 discussed above in connectionwith FIG. 2 for instance, to support display a remoting protocol (e.g.,HDX or ICA). In some embodiments, the remote session agent 416 canestablish a remote desktop session and/or remote application session inaccordance to any variety of protocols, such as the Remote DesktopProtocol (RDP), Appliance Link Protocol (ALP), Remote Frame Buffer (RFB)Protocol, and ICA Protocol. For example, the remote session agent 416can establish a remote application session for a user of the clientdevice to access an enterprise network application. The remote sessionagent 416 can establish the remote application session within or over asecure connection (e.g., a VPN) established by the networking agent 412for instance.

The client application or CEB can include or be associated with a securecontainer 418. A secure container can include a logical or virtualdelineation of one or more types of resources accessible within theclient device and/or accessible by the client device. For example, thesecure container 418 can refer to the entirety of the secured portion ofthe digital workspace, or particular aspect(s) of the secured portion.In some embodiments, the secure container 418 corresponds to a securecache (e.g., electronic or virtual clipboard), and can dynamicallyincorporate a portion of a local cache of each client device of a user,and/or a cloud-based cache of the user, that is protected or secured(e.g., encrypted). The secure container can define a portion of filesystem(s), and/or delineate resources allocated to a CEB and/or tonetwork applications accessed via the CEB. The secure container caninclude elements of the secure data container 228 discussed above inconnection with FIG. 2 for example. The CEB can be configured (e.g., viapolicies) to limit, disallow or disable certain actions or activities onresources and/or data identified to be within a secure container. Asecured container can be defined to specify that the resources and/ordata within the secure container are to be monitored for misuse, abuseand/or exfiltration.

In certain embodiments, a secure container relates to or involves theuse of a secure browser (e.g., embedded browser 410 or secure browser420) that implements various enterprise security features. Networkapplications (or web pages accessed by the secure browser) that areconfigured to run within the secure browser can effectively inherit thesecurity mechanisms implemented by the secure browser. These networkapplications can be considered to be contained within the securecontainer. The use of such a secure browser can enable an enterprise toimplement a content filtering policy in which, for example, employeesare blocked from accessing certain web sites from their client devices.The secure browser can be used, for example, to enable client deviceusers to access a corporate intranet without the need for a VPN.

In some embodiments, a secure container can support various types ofremedial actions for protecting enterprise resources. One such remedy isto lock the client device, or a secure container on the client devicethat stores data to be protected, such that the client device or securecontainer can only be unlocked with a valid code provided by anadministrator for instance. In some embodiments, these and other typesof remedies can be invoked automatically based on conditions detected onthe client device (via the application of policies for instance), or canbe remotely initiated by an administrator.

In some embodiments, a secure container can include a secure documentcontainer for documents. A document can comprise any computer-readablefile including text, audio, video, and/or other types of information ormedia. A document can comprise any single one or combination of thesemedia types. As explained herein, the secure container can help preventthe spread of enterprise information to different applications andcomponents of the client device, as well as to other devices. Theenterprise system (which can be partially or entirely within a cloudnetwork) can transmit documents to various devices, which can be storedwithin the secure container. The secure container can preventunauthorized applications and other components of the client device fromaccessing information within the secure container. For enterprises thatallow users to use their own client devices for accessing, storing, andusing enterprise data, providing secure container on the client deviceshelps to secure the enterprise data. For instance, providing securecontainers on the client devices can centralize enterprise data in onelocation on each client device, and can facilitate selective or completedeletion of enterprise data from each client device when desired.

The secure container can include an application that implements a filesystem that stores documents and/or other types of files. The filesystem can comprise a portion of a computer-readable memory of theclient device. The file system can be logically separated from otherportions of the computer-readable memory of the client device. In thisway, enterprise data can be stored in a secure container and privatedata can be stored in a separate portion of the computer-readable memoryof the client device for instance. The secure container can allow theCEB, network applications accessed via the CEB, locally installedapplications and/or other components of the client device to read from,write to, and/or delete information from the file system (if authorizedto do so). Deleting data from the secure container can include deletingactual data stored in the secure container, deleting pointers to datastored in the secure container, deleting encryption keys used to decryptdata stored in the secure container, and the like. The secure containercan be installed by, e.g., the client application, an administrator, orthe client device manufacturer. The secure container can enable some orall of the enterprise data stored in the file system to be deletedwithout modifying private data stored on the client device outside ofthe secure container. The file system can facilitate selective orcomplete deletion of data from the file system. For example, anauthorized component of the enterprise's system can delete data from thefile system based on, e.g., encoded rules. In some embodiments, theclient application can delete the data from the file system, in responseto receiving a deletion command from the enterprise's system.

The secure container can include an access manager that governs accessto the file system by applications and other components of the clientdevice. Access to the file system can be governed based on documentaccess policies (e.g., encoded rules) maintained by the clientapplication, in the documents and/or in the file system. A documentaccess policy can limit access to the file system based on (1) whichapplication or other component of the client device is requestingaccess, (2) which documents are being requested, (3) time or date, (4)geographical position of the client device, (5) whether the requestingapplication or other component provides a correct certificate orcredentials, (6) whether the user of the client device provides correctcredentials, (7) other conditions, or any combination thereof. A user'scredentials can comprise, for example, a password, one or more answersto security questions (e.g., What is the mascot of your high school?),biometric information (e.g., fingerprint scan, eye-scan), and the like.Hence, by using the access manager, the secure container can beconfigured to be accessed only by applications that are authorized toaccess the secure container. As one example, the access manager canenable enterprise applications installed on the client device to accessdata stored in the secure container and to prevent non-enterpriseapplications from accessing the data stored in the secure container.

Temporal and geographic restrictions on document access may be useful.For example, an administrator may deploy a document access policy thatrestricts the availability of the documents (stored within the securecontainer) to a specified time window and/or a geographic zone (e.g., asdetermined by a GPS chip) within which the client device must reside inorder to access the documents. Further, the document access policy caninstruct the secure container or client application to delete thedocuments from the secure container or otherwise make them unavailablewhen the specified time period expires or if the client device is takenoutside of the defined geographic zone.

Some documents can have access policies that forbid the document frombeing saved within the secure container. In such embodiments, thedocument can be available for viewing on the client device only when theuser is logged in or authenticated via the cloud services for example.

The access manager can also be configured to enforce certain modes ofconnectivity between remote devices (e.g., an enterprise resource orother enterprise server) and the secure container. For example, theaccess manager can require that documents received by the securecontainer from a remote device and/or sent from the secure container tothe remote device be transmitted through secured tunnels/connections,for example. The access manager can require that all documentstransmitted to and from the secure container be encrypted. The clientapplication or access manager can be configured to encrypt documentssent from the secure container and decrypt documents sent to the securecontainer. Documents in the secure container can also be stored in anencrypted form.

The secure container can be configured to prevent documents or dataincluded within documents or the secure container from being used byunauthorized applications or components of the client device or otherdevices. For instance, a client device application having authorizationto access documents from the secure container can be programmed toprevent a user from copying a document's data and pasting it intoanother file or application interface, or locally saving the document ordocument data as a new file outside of the secure container. Similarly,the secure container can include a document viewer and/or editor that donot permit such copy/paste and local save operations. Moreover, theaccess manager can be configured to prevent such copy/paste and localsave operations. Further, the secure container and applicationsprogrammed and authorized to access documents from the secure containercan be configured to prevent users from attaching such documents toemails or other forms of communication.

One or more applications (e.g., applications installed on the clientdevice, and/or network applications accessed via the CEB) can beprogrammed or controlled (e.g., via policy-based enforcement) to writeenterprise-related data only into the secure container. For instance, anapplication's source code can be provided with the resource name of thesecure container. Similarly, a remote application (e.g., executing on adevice other than the client device) can be configured to send data ordocuments only to the secure container (as opposed to other componentsor memory locations of the client device). Storing data to the securecontainer can occur automatically, for example, under control of theapplication, the client application, and/or the secure browser. Theclient application can be programmed to encrypt or decrypt documentsstored or to be stored within the secure container. In certainembodiments, the secure container can only be used by applications (onthe client device or a remote device) that are programmed to identifyand use the secure container, and which have authorization to do so.

The network applications 406 can include sanctioned network applications426 and non-sanctioned network applications 428. By way of anon-limiting example, sanctioned network applications 426 can includenetwork applications from Workday, SALESFORCE, Office 365, SAP, and soon, while non-sanctioned network applications 426 can include networkapplications from DROPBOX, GMAIL, and so on. For instance, FIG. 4illustrates a case where sanctioned applications 426 are accessed via aCEB. In operation (1), a user instance of a client application 404, thatis installed on client device 402, can register or authenticate with theaccess gateway 422 of cloud services 408. For example, the user canauthenticate the user to the client device and login to the clientdevice 402. The client application can automatically execute, or beactivated by the user. In some embodiments, the user can sign in to theclient application (e.g., by authenticating the user to the clientapplication). In response to the login or sign-in, the clientapplication can register or authenticate the user and/or the clientapplication with the access gateway 422.

In operation (2), in response to the registration or authentication, theaccess gateway 422 can identify or retrieve a list of enumerated networkapplications available or pre-assigned to the user, and can provide thelist to the client application. For example, in response to theregistration or authentication, the access gateway can identify the userand/or retrieve a user profile of the user. According to the identityand/or user profile, the access gateway can determine the list (e.g.,retrieve a stored list of network applications matched with the userprofile and/or the identity of the user). The list can correspond to alist of network applications sanctioned for the user. The access gatewaycan send the list to the client application or embedded browser, whichcan be presented via the client application or embedded browser to theuser (e.g., in a storefront user interface) for selection.

In operation (3), the user can initiate connection to a sanctionednetwork application (e.g., a SaaS application), by selecting from thelist of network applications presented to the user. For example, theuser can click on an icon or other representation of the sanctionednetwork application, displayed via the client application or embeddedbrowser. This user action can trigger the CEB to transmit a connectionor access request to a server that provisions the network application.The request can include a request to the server (e.g., SaaS provider) tocommunicate with the access gateway to authenticate the user. The servercan send a request to the access gateway to authenticate the user forexample.

In operation (4), the access gateway can perform SSO with the server, toauthenticate the user. For example, in response to the server's requestto authenticate the user, the access gateway can provide credentials ofthe user to the server(s) 430 for SSO, to access the selected networkapplication and/or other sanctioned network applications. In operation(5), the user can log into the selected network application, based onthe SSO (e.g., using the credentials). The client application (e.g., thenetworking agent 412 and/or the remote session agent 416) can establisha secure connection and session with the server(s) 430 to access theselected network application. The CEB can decrypt application trafficreceived via the secure connection. The CEB can monitor traffic sent viathe CEB and the secured connection to the servers 430.

In operation (6), the client application can provide information to theanalytics services 424 of cloud services 408, for analytics processing.For example, the cloud services agent 414 of the client application 404can monitor for or capture user interaction events with the selectednetwork application. The cloud services agent 414 can convey the userinteraction events to the analytics services 424, to be processed toproduce analytics.

FIG. 5 depicts an example embodiment of a system for using a securebrowser. In brief overview, the system includes cloud services 408,network applications 406 and client device 402. In some embodiments,various elements of the system are similar to that described above forFIG. 4, but that the client application (with embedded browser) is notavailable in the client device 402. A standard or typical browser may beavailable on the client device, from which a user can initiate a requestto access a sanctioned network application for instance. A networkapplication can be specified as being sanctioned or unsanctioned viapolicies that can be set by an administrator or automatically (e.g., viaartificial intelligence).

For example, in operation (1), the user may log into the networkapplication using the standard browser. For accessing a sanctionednetwork application, the user may access a predefined URL and/orcorresponding webpage of a server that provisions the networkapplication, via the standard browser, to initiate a request to accessthe network application. In some embodiments, the request can beforwarded to or intercepted by a designated gateway service (e.g., in adata path of the request). For example, the gateway service can resideon the client device (e.g., as an executable program), or can reside ona network device 432 of the cloud services 408 for instance. In someembodiments, the access gateway can correspond to or include the gatewayservice. The gateway service can determine if the requested networkapplication is a sanctioned network application. The gateway service candetermine if a CEB initiated the request. The gateway service can detector otherwise determine that the request is initiated from a source(e.g., initiated by the standard browser) in the client device otherthan a CEB. In some embodiments, there is no requirement for adesignated gateway service to detect or determine if the request isinitiated from a CEB, for example if the requested network applicationis sanctioned, that user is initiating the request via a standardbrowser, and/or that the predefined URL and/or corresponding webpage isaccessed.

In operation (2), the server may authenticate the user via the accessgateway of the cloud services 408. The server may communicate with theaccess gateway to authenticate the user, in response to the request. Forinstance, the request can include an indication to the server tocommunicate with the access gateway to authenticate the user. In someembodiments, the server is pre-configured to communicate with the accessgateway to authenticate the user, for requests to access a sanctionednetwork application. The server may send a request to the access gatewayto authenticate the user. In response to the server's request toauthenticate the user, the access gateway can provide credentials of theuser to the server 430.

In operation (3), the gateway service and/or the server can direct (orredirect) all traffic to a secure browser 420 which provides a securebrowsing service. This may be in response to at least one of: adetermination that the requested network application is a sanctionednetwork application, a determination that the request is initiated froma source other than a CEB, a determination that the requested networkapplication is sanctioned, a determination that user is initiating therequest via a standard browser, and/or a determination that thepredefined URL and/or corresponding webpage is accessed.

The user's URL session can be redirected to the secure browser. Forexample, the server, gateway service and/or the access gateway cangenerate and/or send a URL redirect message to the standard browser,responsive to the determination. The secure browser plug-in of thestandard browser can receive the URL redirect message, and can forexample send a request to access the non-sanctioned network application,to the secure browser 420. The secure browser 420 can direct the requestto the server of the non-sanctioned network application. The URLredirect message can instruct the standard browser (and/or the securebrowser plug-in) to direct traffic (e.g., destined for the networkapplication) from the standard browser to the secure browser 420 hostedon a network device. This can provide clientless access and control viadynamic routing though a secure browser service. In some embodiments, aredirection of all traffic to the secure browser 420 is initiated orconfigured, prior to performing authentication of the user (e.g., usingSSO) with the server.

In some embodiments, the gateway service can direct or request theserver of the requested network application to communicate with thesecure browser 420. For example, the gateway service can direct theserver and/or the secure browser to establish a secured connectionbetween the server and the secure browser, for establishing anapplication session for the network application.

In some embodiments, the secured browser 420 comprises a browser that ishosted on a network device 432 of the cloud services 408. The securedbrowser 420 can include one or more features of the secured browser 420described above in connection with at least FIG. 4 for instance. Thehosted browser can include an embedded browser of a CEB that is hostedon the network device 432 instead of on the client device. The hostedbrowser can include an embedded browser of a hosted virtualized versionof the CEB that is hosted on the network device 432. Similar to the CEBinstalled on the client device, traffic is routed through the CEB hostedon the network device, which allows an administrator to have visibilityof the traffic through the CEB and to remain in control for securitypolicy control, analytics, and/or management of performance.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example implementation for browser redirectionusing a secure browser plug-in. In brief overview, the implementationincludes a web browser 512 with a secure browser plug-in 516 operatingon a client device, and a hosted web browser (or secure browser) 522residing on a network device. The web browser 512 can correspond to astandard browser, instead of an embedded browser as discussed above inconnection with FIG. 4 for example. The secure browser plug-in 516 canexecute within a first network 510 and access a server 430 in a secondnetwork 530. The first network 510 and the second network 530 are forillustration purposes and may be replaced with fewer or additionalcomputer networks. A secure browser plug-in 516 can be installed on thestandard browser 512. The plug-in can include one or more components.One such component can include an ActiveX control or JAVA control or anyother type and/or form of executable instructions capable of loadinginto and executing in the standard browser. For example, the standardbrowser can load and run an Active X control of the secure browserplug-in 516, in a memory space or context of the standard browser. Insome embodiments, the secure browser plug-in can be installed as anextension on the standard browser, and a user can choose to enable ordisable the plugin or extension. The secure browser plug-in cancommunicate and/or operate with the secured browser 420 for securing,using and/or accessing resources within the secured portion of thedigital workspace.

By using the secure browser plug-in 516 operating within the standardbrowser 512 network applications accessed via the standard browser 512can be redirected to a hosted secure browser. For instance, the securebrowser plug-in 516 can be implemented and/or designed to detect that anetwork application is being accessed via the standard browser, and candirect/redirect traffic from the client device associated with thenetwork application, to the hosted secure browser. The hosted securebrowser can direct traffic received from the network application, to thesecure browser plug-in 516 and/or a client agent 514 for renderingand/or display for example. The client agent 514 can execute within theweb browser 512 and/or the secure browser plug-in, and can includecertain elements or features of the client application 404 discussedabove in connection with at least FIG. 4 for example. For instance, theclient agent 514 can include a remote session agent 416 for renderingthe network application at the web browser 512. In some embodiments, thenetwork application is rendered at the hosted secure browser, and therendered data is conveyed or mirrored to the secure browser plug-in 516and/or the client agent 514 for processing and/or display.

By way of an example, a user may be working remotely and may want toaccess a network application that is internal to a secure corporatenetwork while the user is working on a computing device connected to anunsecure network. In this case, the user may be utilizing the standardbrowser 512 executing in the first network 510, in which the firstnetwork 510 may comprise an unsecure network. The server 430 that theuser wants to access may be on the second network 530, in which thesecond network 530 comprises a secure corporate network for instance.The user might not be able to access the server 430 from the unsecurefirst network 510 by clicking on an internal uniform record locator(URL) for the secure website 532. That is, the user may need to utilizea different URL (e.g., an external URL) while executing the standardbrowser 512 from the external unsecure network 510. The external URL maybe directed to or may address one or more hosted web browsers 522configured to access server(s) 430 within the second network 530 (e.g.,secure network). To maintain secure access, the secure browser plug-in516 may redirect an internal URL to an external URL for a hosted securebrowser.

The secure browser plug-in 516 may be able to implement networkdetection in order to identify whether or not to redirect internal URLsto external URLs. The standard browser 512 may receive a requestcomprising an internal URL for a website executing within the securenetwork. For example, the standard browser 512 may receive the requestin response to a user entering a web address (e.g., for secure website532) in the standard browser. The secure browser plug-in 516 mayredirect the user web browser application 512 from the internal URL toan external URL for a hosted web browser application. For example, thesecure browser plug-in 516 may replace the internal URL with an externalURL for the hosted web browser application 522 executing within thesecure network 530.

The secure browser plug-in 516 may allow the client agent 514 to beconnected to the hosted web browser application 522. The client agent514 may comprise a plug-in component, such as an ActiveX control or JAVAcontrol or any other type and/or form of executable instructions capableof loading into and executing in the standard browser 512. For example,the client agent 514 may comprise an ActiveX control loaded and run by astandard browser 512, such as in the memory space or context of the userweb browser application 512. The client agent 514 may be pre-configuredto present the content of the hosted web browser application 522 withinthe user web browser application 512.

The client agent 514 may connect to a server or the cloud/hosted webbrowser service 520 using a thin-client or remote-display protocol topresent display output generated by the hosted web browser application522 executing on the service 520. The thin-client or remote-displayprotocol can be any one of the following non-exhaustive list ofprotocols: the Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) protocoldeveloped by Citrix Systems, Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; or the RemoteDesktop Protocol (RDP) manufactured by the MICROSOFT Corporation ofRedmond, Wash.

The hosted web browser application 522 may navigate to the requestednetwork application in full-screen mode, and can render the requestednetwork application. The client agent 514 may present the content orrendition of the network application on the web browser application 512in a seamless and transparent manner such that it appears that thecontent is being displayed by the standard browser 512, e.g., based onthe content being displayed in full screen mode. In other words, theuser may be given the impression that the web site content is displayedby the user web browser application 512 and not by the hosted webbrowser application 522. The client agent 514 may transmit navigationcommands generated by the user web browser application 512 to the hostedweb browser application 522 using the thin-client or remote-displayprotocol. Changes to the display output of the hosted web browserapplication 522, due to the navigation commands, may be reflected in theuser web browser application 512 by the client agent 514, giving theimpression to the user that the navigation commands were executed by theuser web browser application 512.

Referring again to FIG. 5, and in operation (4), a new browser tab canopen on the standard browser, to render or display the secure browsersession. The new browser tab can be established or opened by the securebrowser plug-in for instance. The secure browser plug-in and/or a clientagent can receive data from the secure browser session, and can renderthe network application within the new browser tab as discussed above inconnection with FIG. 6 for instance.

In operation (5), the secure browser can feed all user interactionevents via the network application, back to analytics service forprocessing. The secure browser plug-in can monitor for and intercept anyuser interaction events directed to the rendition of the networkapplication within the browser tab. Hence, a user can use a native (orstandard) browser to access a network application while allowingvisibility into the network application's traffic, via theinteroperation of cloud services and a secure browser (in the absence ofthe client application).

FIG. 7 depicts another example embodiment of a system of using a securebrowser. In brief overview, the system includes cloud services 408,network applications 406 and the client device 402. In some embodiments,various elements of the system are similar to that described above forFIG. 5. A client application with embedded browser is not available inthe client device 402. A standard or typical (e.g., HTML5) browser isavailable on the client device, from which a user can initiate a requestto access a non-sanctioned network application. A network applicationcan be specified as being sanctioned or non-sanctioned via policies thatcan be set by an administrator or automatically (e.g., via artificialintelligence).

In operation (1), the user may attempt to log into a non-sanctionednetwork application using the standard browser. The user may attempt toaccess a webpage of a server that provisions the network application,and to initiate a request to access the network application. In someembodiments, the request can be forwarded to or intercepted by adesignated gateway service (e.g., in a data path of the request). Forexample, the gateway service (sometimes referred to as SWG) can resideon the client device (e.g., as an executable program), or can reside ona network device 432 of the cloud services 408 for instance. The gatewayservice can detect or otherwise determine if the requested networkapplication is a sanctioned network application. The gateway service candetermine if a CEB initiated the request. The gateway service can detector otherwise determine that the request is initiated from a source(e.g., initiated by the standard browser) in the client device otherthan a CEB.

In operation (2), the gateway service detects that the requested networkapplication is a non-sanctioned network application. The gateway servicecan for instance extract information from the request (e.g., destinationaddress, name of the requested network application), and compare theinformation against that from a database of sanctioned and/ornon-sanctioned network applications. The gateway service can determine,based on the comparison, that the requested network application is anon-sanctioned network application.

In operation (3), responsive to the determination, the gateway servicecan block access to the requested network application, e.g., by blockingthe request. The gateway service can generate and/or send a URL redirectmessage to the standard browser, responsive to the determination. TheURL redirect message can be similar to a URL redirect message sent fromthe server to the standard browser in FIG. 5 in operation (3). A securebrowser plug-in of the standard browser can receive the URL redirectmessage, and can for example send a request to access the non-sanctionednetwork application, to the secure browser 420. The secure browser 420can direct the request to the server of the non-sanctioned networkapplication.

The server of the non-sanctioned network application may authenticatethe user via the access gateway of the cloud services 408, e.g.,responsive to receiving the request from the secure browser. The servermay communicate with the access gateway to authenticate the user, inresponse to the request. The server may send a request to the accessgateway to authenticate the user. In response to the server's request toauthenticate the user, the access gateway can provide credentials of theuser to the server 430. Upon authentication, the secure browser (or acorresponding CEB) can establish a secured connection and an applicationsession with the server.

In operation (4), a new browser tab can open on the standard browser, torender or display the secure browser's application session. The newbrowser tab can be established or opened by the secure browser plug-infor instance. The secure browser plug-in and/or a client agent canreceive data from the secure browser session, and can render the networkapplication within the new browser tab as discussed above in connectionwith FIGS. 5-6 for instance.

In operation (5), the secure browser can feed all user interactionevents via the network application, back to analytics service forprocessing. The secure browser plug-in can monitor for and intercept anyuser interaction events directed to the rendition of the networkapplication within the browser tab. Hence, a user can use a native (orstandard) browser to access a network application while allowingvisibility into the network application's traffic, via theinteroperation of cloud services and a secure browser (in the absence ofthe client application).

In some embodiments, in the absence or non-availability of a CEB on theclient device, browser redirection is performed so that each requestednetwork application is accessed via a corresponding hosted securebrowser (or hosted CEB) for handling, instead of having all trafficredirected through a single hosted secure browser (or hosted CEB). Eachdedicated secure browser can provide compartmentalization and improvedsecurity.

The use of a CEB, whether hosted or local to the client device, canallow for end-to-end visibility of application traffic for analytics,service level agreement (SLA), resource utilization, audit, and so on.In addition to such visibility, the CEB can be configured with policiesfor managing and controlling any of these as well as other aspects. Forexample, DLP features can be supported, to control “copy and paste”activities, download of files, sharing of files, and to implementwatermarking for instance. As another example, the CEB can be configuredwith policies for managing and controlling access to local drives and/ordevice resources such as peripherals.

Referring now to FIG. 8, an example embodiment of a system for usinglocal embedded browser(s) and hosted secured browser(s) is depicted. Anenvironment is shown where different types of client devices 402A, 402Bmay be used (e.g., in a BYOD context), such that one may be locallyequipped with a suitable CEB, and another client device may not have asuitable local CEB installed. In such an environment, systems describedin FIGS. 4, 5 and 7 can be used to support each of the client devicesbased on the availability of a locally installed and suitable CEB.

FIG. 9 depicts an example process flow for using local embeddedbrowser(s) and hosted secured browser(s). The process flow can be usedin the environment described above in FIG. 8, to determine whether anembedded browser or a hosted secured browser should be used for eachclient device to access a network application. For example, in operation901, a HTTP client can attempt to access a web service (e.g., server ofa network application). In operation 903, the web service can redirectthe HTTP client to a gateway service for authentication. In operation905, the gateway service can determine if the HTTP client is a CEB. Ifso, in operation 909, the gateway service can determine if the CEB is asuitable CEB, e.g., capable of enforcing defined application policies.If so, in operation 911, the CEB is allowed access to the web service,and can enforce the defined policies.

If the gateway service determines that the HTTP client is not a CEB, thegateway service can cause a virtualized version of a CEB to beinitialized and hosted on a remote server (e.g., a network device 432 ofcloud services 408), in operation 907. In some embodiments, such ahosted CEB may already be available on a network device 432, and can beselected for use. For example in operation 911, the CEB is allowedaccess to the web service, and can enforce the defined policies.

If the gateway service determines that the HTTP client is a CEB, butthat the CEB is not a suitable CEB, the gateway service can cause avirtualized version of a CEB to be initialized and hosted on a remoteserver (e.g., a network device 432 of cloud services 408), in operation907. In some embodiments, such a hosted CEB may already be available ona network device 432, and can be selected for use. For example inoperation 911, the CEB is allowed access to the web service, and canenforce the defined policies.

In some embodiments, if the user is requesting access to a webapplication located in a company data center, the gateway service (incloud service or on premise) can allow access when the clientapplication with CEB is detected. Otherwise, the request can be routedto a service with the hosted virtualized version of the CEB, and thenaccess is authenticated and granted.

At operation 905 and/or operation 909 for instance, the decisions madeon whether the HTTP client is a CEB and whether it is a suitable CEB maybe determined by a number of factors. For example, to determine if theHTTP client is CEB, the gateway service may take into account factors,for example including at least one of: user Identity and strength ofauthentication, client Location, client IP Address, how trusted the useridentity, client location, client IP are, jailbreak status of the clientdevice, status of anti-malware software, compliance to corporate policyof the client device, and/or remote attestation or other evidence ofintegrity of the client software.

To determine if the CEB is able to honor or support all definedapplication policies (which may vary by client version, client OSplatform and other factors), the client device's software and gatewayservice may perform capability negotiation and/or exchange versioninformation. In some embodiments, the gateway service can query or checka version number or identifier of the CEB to determine if the CEB is asuitable CEB to use.

Driving all the traffic though the CEB then allows additional control ofcontent accessing SaaS and Web based systems. Data Loss Prevention (DLP)of SaaS and Web traffic can be applied through the CEB app with featuresincluding copy and paste control to other CEB access applications or ITmanaged devices. DLP can also be enforced by enabling content to bedownloaded only to designated file servers or services under IT control.

Referring now to FIG. 10, depicted is an example embodiment of a systemfor managing user access to webpages. Some webpages (or websites) areknown to be safe while others may be suspect. A user may access awebpage via a corresponding URL through a standard browser. For example,the user may click on a link corresponding to the URL, which may beincluded in an email being viewed using a mail application. An accessgateway (SWG) may intercept an access request generated by the clickingof the link, and can determine if the corresponding URL is safe orsuspect. If the URL is known to be safe, the access gateway can allowthe request to proceed to the corresponding website or web server. Ifthe URL is suspect, the access gateway can redirect the request to behandled via a hosted secure browser. The secure browser can requestaccess for, and access the webpage (on behalf of the standard browser),and can allow the webpage information to be conveyed to the standardbrowser, similar to the handling of a network application via browserredirection as discussed in connection with at least FIGS. 7 and 5.

C. Systems and Methods for Encapsulating Hypertext Markup Language(HTML)

The present disclosure is directed towards systems and methods forencapsulating hypertext markup language (HTML). An agent (also referredto hereinafter as a transcoding agent) in a remote browser (e.g.,executing on a server) can encapsulate HTML from a webpage and send theencapsulated HTML via a remote delivery session to a client device. Theencapsulated HTML can be rendered (e.g., into pixels) by a local browserat the client device. Such a processing pipeline is simple andefficient, both in terms of loading latency and overall resourceconsumption. Such a processing pipeline may bypass any remote renderingof the HTML into pixels (e.g., at the server) to send to the clientdevice, and subsequent transcoding of the pixels (e.g., at the clientdevice). Rather, the local browser can receive the encapsulated HTML andcan be utilized directly to render the encapsulated HTML at the clientdevice.

In some embodiments, some aspects of the remote browser may not becompatible with some aspects of the local browser (e.g., in handling acertain portion of the encapsulated HTML). For instance, the localbrowser may not be able to process or render some portion of the HTMLencapsulated by the remote browser. In such embodiments, the remotebrowser may render a corresponding portion of the HTML from the websiteto pixels (or pixel form) at the server, and encapsulate a remainingportion of a web page. The pixels (along with the encapsulated HTMLportion of the web page) may be communicated to the client device forrendering at the local browser. The local browser may include an HTML5receiver (or similar agent, application, etc.) to build, generate, orotherwise to transcode the pixels for rendering. For example, the HTML5receiver may construct or reconstruct HTML from the pixels, forinstance. The local browser may then render the HTML that wasconstructed or reconstructed from the pixels, as well as the portion ofencapsulated HTML. Such embodiments may provide for remote rendering ofat least some portion of the HTML from the webpage to address browserincompatibility.

The aspects described herein provide for an HTML-to-HTML transcodingscheme (e.g., via the transcoding agent), for instance in a remotebrowser and local browser configuration (e.g., a remote browserservice). The HTML-to-HTML transcoding scheme is in contrast with aHTML-to-pixels-to-HTML transcoding scheme, for instance. In theHTML-to-pixels-to-HTML transcoding scheme, HTML from a webpage isrendered to pixels (or pixel form) at the remote browser. A remotedelivery session, such as a delivery session using high definitionexperience (HDX) protocol, that is established between remote browserand the local browser, can be used to communicate the pixels from theserver to the client device. The pixels received by the client deviceare converted or transcoded to HTML (e.g., by an HTML5 receiver orapplication running in the local browser), and the HTML is rendered atthe local browser. Such an HTML-to-pixels-to-HTML transcoding scheme caninefficient relative to the HTML-to-HTML transcoding scheme. Forexample, remote rendering to pixels followed by the transcoding of thepixels back to HTML may cause loading latency and may consume additionalresources. The HTML-to-HTML transcoding scheme can bypass the remoterender stage and subsequent transcoding of pixels to HTML. TheHTML-to-HTML transcoding scheme is simpler and can directly utilize thelocal browser for rendering HTML, which can conserve resources.

In some embodiments, the remote browser service primarily uses anHTML-to-HTML transcoding scheme, although a portion of a web page may beremotely rendered (e.g., into pixel form) for remote delivery to addressincompatibility of the local browser with the portion of the web pageand/or with the remote browser. The transcoding agent may generate anencapsulated HTML from HTML corresponding to a document of a webpage,website, web application, etc., which may be more “controllable” undervarious policy controls. For instance, a policy control may be able toregulate or otherwise control user interactions with the encapsulatedHTML rendered at the local browser, to a larger extent thannon-encapsulated HTML, for example. For instance, the encapsulated HTMLrendered at the local browser may allow an enterprise to place a limiton or have control over some user interactions, such as watermarking,cut-paste control, cached content control, and/or other controls thatthe hosted browser may otherwise permit enterprise users to exert on theHTML.

The transcoding agent may transcode the HTML via several techniques,each of which is discussed in greater detail below. In some embodiments,the transcoding agent may use webcomponent.js (or other web componentsapplication programming interface (API)) to generate, create, or provideShadow document object model (DOM) and/or custom element constructs inthe transcoded or encapsulated HTML. A Shadow DOM or custom elementconstruct may encapsulate (or “seal”) at least a portion of the originaldocument (e.g., webpage). Such embodiments may make some aspects of thedocument, such as JAVASCRIPT, extensions, etc., unavailable in an outerDOM of the encapsulated HTML that the local browser exposes.

In some embodiments, some document and/or window objects within thewebpage may be virtualized at the remote browser, as part of theencapsulation or transcoding of the HTML. The document and/or windowobjects may be virtualized to hijack (e.g., re-route, intercept, ignore,disregard, and/or reject) calls to browser services (e.g., navigation,history, XMLHttpRequest (XHR), cached data access, and/or other localresources that may be mapped by browser services). The document and/orwindow objects may be virtualized by hooking (e.g., inserting code,revising the code, and/or re-coding) the object prototype correspondingto those objects in the DOM being virtualized.

In some embodiments, the remote browser may replace at least a portionof the HTML content from the webpage with a pre-rendered image (e.g.,the remote browser may render at least a portion of the HTML content topixels at the server). The remote browser may encapsulate a remainingportion of the HTML content into encapsulated HTML. The remote browsermay maintain a DOM (e.g., a remote DOM at the server) corresponding tothe HTML content. The remote browser may communicate the pre-renderedimage (or pixels) and encapsulated HTML to the client device (e.g., forrendering at the local browser). The local browser may include an HTMLreceiver (e.g., an HTML5 receiver) for generating, constructing, etc.,HTML from the pre-rendered image or pixels. The local browser may renderthe encapsulated HTML received by the remote browser. The local browsermay maintain a shadow DOM (e.g., a DOM established based on theencapsulated HTML and/or HTML generated from the pre-rendered image orpixels). The local browser may detect, identify, intercept and/orreceive events (e.g., user actions, interactions, or other events forthe page), which may occur or be reflected in the shadow DOM. The localbrowser may communicate, convey, direct and/or mirror the events to theremote browser hosted at the server for execution (e.g., for executionon the remote DOM).

Referring to FIG. 11, depicted is a block diagram of one embodiment of asystem 1100 for encapsulating hypertext markup language (HTML). Thesystem 1100 may include a server 1102, which can execute a remotebrowser 1104, and a client device 1106, which can execute a localbrowser 1108. A user may request a webpage 1110 to be opened in thelocal browser 1108. The webpage 1110 may include HTML 1112 thatrepresents, implements or otherwise describes the webpage 1110. The HTML1114 may be requested by, and can be communicated to the remote browser1104. The remote browser 1104 may generate, create, provide, orotherwise maintain a document object model (DOM) 1114 of the HTML 1112corresponding to the webpage 1106. A transcoding agent 1116 may generateencapsulated HTML 1118 from the DOM of the HTML 1114 (and/or from theHTML 1112). The encapsulated HTML 1118 may be communicated from theserver 1102 to the client device 1106. The local browser 1108 executingon the client device 1106 may render the encapsulated HTML 1118. Thelocal browser 1108 can render the encapsulated HTML 1118 into pixels fordisplay at the local browser 1108. The local browser 1108 may generate,create, provide, or otherwise maintain a DOM 1120 of the encapsulatedHTML corresponding to the webpage 1106.

Each of the above-mentioned elements or entities is implemented inhardware, or a combination of hardware and software, in one or moreembodiments. Each component of the system 1100 may be implemented usinghardware or a combination of hardware or software detailed above inconnection with FIG. 1. For instance, each of these elements or entitiescan include any application, program, library, script, task, service,process or any type and form of executable instructions executing onhardware of the client device 1106 or the server 1102 for example. Thehardware includes circuitry such as one or more processors in one ormore embodiments.

The server(s) 1102 may include any embodiment of volatile memory 122 ornon-volatile memory 128 and/or processor(3) 103 (discussed in FIG. 1 forexample) which may execute, host, implement, provision, or otherwiseoperate a remote browser 1104. The server(s) 1102 may include one ormore elements of any embodiment of the network devices(s) 432, cloudservices 408 and/or hosted web browser service 520 described above inconnection with FIGS. 4-7 for example. The server(s) 1102 maycommunicate with other various components of the system 1100 via acommunications interface 118. Hence, the server(s) 1102 may be similarin some aspects to the computer 101 described with reference to FIG. 1.The server(s) 1102 may host, maintain, execute, include, or otherwiseprovide a transcoding agent 1116 configured to encapsulate HTML 1112from a webpage 1110. The server(s) 1102 may communicate the encapsulatedHTML 1118 to the client device 1106 for rendering at the client device1106 (e.g., in a local browser 1108 of the client device 1106).

The remote browser 1104 may execute on the server(s) 1102. The remotebrowser 1104 may be configured to request, access, or otherwise retrieve(or receive) data from a webpage 1106. A user operating a local browser(e.g., executing on a client device) may request the webpage 1106 beopened, for example. The user may request the webpage 1106 by, forinstance, selecting a hyperlink for the webpage 1106, typing orotherwise providing an address for the webpage 1106 at the localbrowser, etc. The local browser may provide the request to the remotebrowser 1104 for execution. The remote server may then request, access,or otherwise retrieve (or receive) data from the webpage 1106 on behalfof the user (responsive to the user's action at the local browser). Insome embodiments, the webpage 1106 may be a page from a web application(e.g., an application, such as a network application 406, which may behosted on server(s) 430 as described above with reference to at leastFIGS. 4, 5, 7 and 8).

The webpage 1106 may include HTML 1112. The HTML 1112 for the webpage1106 may include or correspond to a markup language used for generating,constructing, building, assembling, or otherwise creating the webpage1106. The HTML 1112 may be or include various instructions, code, etc.,for a browser (e.g., the remote browser 1104, the local browser 1108, orother browser) to render, display or establish a DOM for the webpage1106.

The server(s) 1102 may be communicably coupled via a network to a serverwhich hosts the webpage 1106. The server(s) 1102 may communicate withthe server hosting the webpage 1106 via a communications protocol suchas HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), HyperText Transfer ProtocolSecure (HTTPS), etc. The server(s) 1102 may receive the HTML 1112 fromthe server hosting the webpage 1106 using the communications protocol.The remote browser 1104 executing on the server(s) 1102 may request,call for, access and/or retrieve the HTML 1112 for the webpage 1110. Theremote browser 1104 may request, call for, access, and/or retrieve theHTML 1112 in response to a user calling or otherwise requesting thewebpage 1110 (e.g., on the local browser 1108).

The remote browser 1104 may generate, create, maintain, or otherwiseprovide a document object model (DOM) 1114 of the HTML 1112 responsiveto, or upon receiving the HTML 1112. The DOM 1114 may be an applicationprogramming interface (API) that provides, maintains and/or generates atree structure for HTML, XHTML, and/or XML documents (e.g., the HTML1112 for the webpage 1110). Each node in the tree structure mayrepresent an object of the document (e.g., a portion of the document, awindow of the document, an image or text within the document). The treestructure may represent the entire document, with individual nodesrepresenting objects within the document. As the document is visuallyupdated (e.g., by user interactions with the document), the DOM 1114 maycorrespondingly be updated. For instance, where a user selects a buttonor hyperlink, enlarges a window, changes a color, etc., suchinteractions may be reflected in the DOM 1114.

In some embodiments, the remote browser 1104 may include or correspondto an embedded browser or a secure browser. The embedded browser may besimilar in some aspects to the embedded browser 410 described above withreference to at least FIGS. 4 and 8 for instance. The secure browser maybe similar in some aspects to the secure browser 420 described abovewith reference to at least FIGS. 4, 5, 7, 8, and 10 for example. Theembedded browser/secure browser may access network applications and/orwebpages (e.g., a page provided by the web application). Where theremote browser 1104 is a secure browser, the secure browser may renderthe network applications and/or webpages to effectively subject thosenetwork applications and/or webpages to security mechanisms implementedby the secure browser. These network applications can be considered tobe contained (e.g., securely) within a secure container. The use of sucha secure browser can enable an enterprise to implement a contentfiltering policy in which, for example, employees are blocked fromaccessing certain web sites directly from their client devices. Thesecure browser can be used, for example, to enable client device usersto access a corporate intranet without the need for a VPN.

The remote browser 1104 may be configured to receive the HTML 1112 forthe webpage 1110. The remote browser 1104 may render the received HTML1112 at the server(s) 1102. For instance, the remote browser 1104 maydownload the HTML 1112 from the server hosting the webpage 1110. Theremote browser 1104 may download the HTML 1112 to, for instance, localmemory at the server(s) 1102. The remote browser 1104 may parse the HTML1112 to render the HTML 1112 at the server(s) 1102 (e.g., on the remotebrowser 1104).

The server(s) 1102 and/or remote browser 1104 may include a transcodingagent 1116. The transcoding agent 1116 may be configured to transcodethe HTML 1112. “Transcode,” as used herein, can mean re-writing,converting, and/or translating code from one coded representation toanother coded representation. The transcoding agent 1116 may beconfigured to transcode the HTML 1112 from one coded representation toanother coded representation. The transcoding agent 1116 may beconfigured to transcode the HTML 1112 to an encapsulated HTML 1118.“Encapsulated,” as used herein, can mean having established a shell orpreserved (or protected, shielded, limited exposure) version orrepresentation of the HTML 1112.

The transcoding agent 1116 may generate, create, build, construct, orotherwise provide the encapsulated HTML 1118 using at least one webcomponents API. For instance, the web components API may include or bepart of webcomponents.js toolset or another HTML toolset. Thetranscoding agent 1116 may provide or implement the encapsulated HTML1118 using Shadow DOM or custom element construct(s). The transcodingagent 1116 can provide or implement such constructs using web componentsAPIs such as Shadow DOM or custom element. The Shadow DOM may be arevised version of the DOM 1114 that has unexposed elements configuredto execute behind-the-scenes. The Shadow DOM may be a shell version ofthe DOM of the HTML 1114 in which certain elements or features are notexposed to manipulation or access. The custom element may be a featuredeveloped, created, generated, produced, or otherwise provided toconfigure a specific function. The custom element may be used forencapsulating for instance a specific portion of the HTML 1112. TheShadow DOM or custom element construct may form a “shell” for the HTML1112 for limited rendering. The Shadow DOM or custom element constructmay shield the HTML 1112 from being exposed to, for instance, JAVASCRIPTmanipulation. The Shadow DOM or custom element construct may preserve atleast a portion of the HTML 1112 for the webpage 1110. In preserving theHTML for the webpage, the Shadow DOM or custom element construct mayblock certain interactions with the page that may modify underlying codefor the page or for the client device (or client application). Hence,the Shadow DOM or custom element construct may generate or form a morebasic or shielded or sanitized or safer version of the webpage 1110

The transcoding agent 1116 may be configured to provide the encapsulatedHTML 1118 so as to block JAVASCRIPT or extensions for the HTML 1112 fromreacting to events (e.g., HTML events and/or DOM events). As describedbelow, the local browser 1108 may maintain a DOM of the encapsulatedHTML 1120. The encapsulated HTML 1118 from the transcoding agent 1116may cause JAVASCRIPT or extensions in the DOM of the encapsulated HTML1120 to be blocked from reacting to events, such as HTML events or DOMevents (as described herein), on the local browser 1108. As one example,a user may select a button on what appears to the user as anadvertisement video. In some instances, when the user selects a “play”button (and the corresponding event is detected), the video would play.However, in a DOM of the encapsulated HTML 1120, such an event can beblocked, thus preventing the DOM from reacting to the event (e.g.,updating the page to play the video based on the detected event of theuser selecting the “play” button).

The transcoding agent 1116 may be configured to provide the encapsulatedHTML 1118 to cause a call to browser services to be intercepted in theDOM of the encapsulated HTML 1120. Browser services may be or include acentralized database, server, and/or computer having a map of localresources, such as notifications, history, XMLHttpRequest (XHR), cacheddata, history, etc., across various client devices within the network.The transcoding agent 1116 may provide and/or use custom elements tomodify code corresponding to objects in the DOM (e.g., the DOM for theHTML 1114) for various aspects of the webpage 1110, into custom elementsconstructs. The custom elements constructs may re-route, intercept,ignore, disregard and/or reject any calls to browser services. Thetranscoding agent 1116 may modify the objects in the DOM by hooking(e.g., inserting code, revising the code, and/or re-coding) the objectprototype corresponding to those objects. Such embodiments may preserve,or prevent/limit access to data in browser services by maintainingconfidentiality, privacy, etc.

The server(s) 1102 may establish a connection with a client device 1106for communicating the encapsulated HTML 1118 to the client device 1106.The server(s) 1102 and/or client device 1106 may include a networkingagent. The networking agent may establish, create, generate, orotherwise form one or more connections between the server(s) 1102 andthe client device 1106. The networking agent is sometimes referred to asan SD-WAN agent, mVPN agent, or microVPN agent. The networking agent canestablish or facilitate establishment of a network connection betweenthe server(s) 1102 and the client device 1106. The networking agent canperform handshaking for a requested connection between the server(s)1102 and client device 1106, and can establish the requested connection.In some embodiments, the networking agent may establish a secure orencrypted connection, such as a virtual private network (VPN) or asecure socket layer (SSL) VPN between the server(s) 1102 and clientdevice 1106. Such secure or encrypted connection may support remotedelivery or provisioning of one or more network applications, webapplications, and/or webpages. The VPN connections, sometimes referredto as microVPN or application-specific VPN, may be specific toparticular network applications, particular devices, particular securedareas on the client device, and the like, for instance as discussedabove in connection with FIG. 3. Such VPN connections can carryMICROSOFT Exchange traffic, MICROSOFT Active Directory traffic,HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) traffic, HyperText Transfer ProtocolSecure (HTTPS) traffic, as some examples.

In some embodiments, the networking agent may be designed or implementedto form an HTTP or web-based session between the server(s) 1102 and theclient device 1106. The networking agent may establish a transmissioncontrol protocol (TCP) connection between the server 1102 (e.g., a portof the server 1102) and the client device 1106. The networking agent canexchange various commands, data, information, etc., between the server1102 and client device 1106 within the HTTP session in accordance withTCP. In some embodiments, the networking agent may establish a secureHTTP (e.g., HTTPS) session in a manner similar to the secure connectionsdescribed above. In some embodiments, the networking agent can form orestablish the network connection between the server(s) 1102 and theclient device 1106. In some embodiments, the networking agent may formor establish a secure connection (e.g., SSL VPN connection) between theserver(s) 1102 and the client device 1106.

The server(s) 1102 may be designed or implemented to initiate a remotedelivery session to deliver, for instance, the encapsulated HTML 1118 tothe client device (or local browser). The server(s) 1102 may initiatethe remote delivery session within or across the network connectionestablished by the networking agent. In some embodiments, a remotesession agent embodied on, included on, or located on the server(s) 1102and/or client device 1106 may initiate the remote delivery session inresponse to a user calling a resource (e.g., the webpage 1110) at theclient device 1106 (e.g., on the local browser 1108). In someembodiments, the remote session agent may initiate a provisioning orremote delivery session (e.g., which may be established using Citrixhigh definition user experience (HDX) or independent computingarchitecture (ICA) protocol, or remote desktop protocol (RDP)). Theremote session agent may initiate the provisioning session in accordancewith any type or form of protocols, such as RDP, Appliance Link Protocol(ALP), Remote Frame Buffer (RFB) Protocol, and ICA Protocol.

In some embodiments, the remote browser 1104 may be configured todeliver, communicate, provide, or otherwise send the encapsulated HTML1118 to the local browser 1108 executing on the client device 1106. Theremote browser 1104 may send the encapsulated HTML 1118 to the localbrowser 1108 via the remote delivery session. In some embodiments, theremote delivery session may be an HDX, ICA, RDP session, which may beestablished using the HDX, ICA, RDP protocols described above. Asdescribed below, the local browser 1108 may render the encapsulated HTML1118, and may maintain a DOM for the encapsulated HTML 1120 (e.g., alocal Shadow DOM) at the client device.

In some embodiments, the remote browser 1104 may be designed orimplemented to render a portion of the HTML 1112 at the server 1102. Theremote browser 1104 may render the portion of the HTML 1112 into animage including one or more pixels. The remote browser 1104 may renderthe portion of the HTML 1112 in response to various conditions. Forexample, the remote browser 1104 may render the portion of the HTML 1112based on computing efficiency (e.g., where it would be more efficientfor the portion of the HTML 1112 to be rendered at the server-side asopposed to the client side). The remote browser 1104 may render theportion of the HTML 1112 based on various security measures (e.g.,according to policy controls). As one example, the remote browser 1104may render a portion of the HTML 1112 for an image containing ahyperlink to prevent users from selecting the image and following thehyperlink. As another example, the remote browser 1104 may know ordetect that the local browser cannot process or render a specificportion of the HTML 1112. The remote browser 1104 may for examplereceive an indication (e.g., from the local browser) indicating thecapabilities of the local browser. For instance, the local browser mayprovide a list or description of available resources, plug-ins, etc. Theremote browser 1104 may determine, based on the capabilities of thelocal browser, that the local browser is not capable of rendering (orthat it is inefficient for the local browser to render) a specificportion of the HTML 1112. The remote browser may render such a portionof the HTML 1112 for delivery to the local browser, while the localbrowser may render the remaining portion(s) of the HTML 1112 deliveredto the local browser.

The remote browser 1104 may be configured to render a portion of theHTML 1112 into an image (e.g., pixels), and the local browser 1108 mayrender the remaining portion of the HTML 1112 (e.g., delivered asencapsulated HTML). The remote browser 1104 may communicate, send, orotherwise provide the image via the remote delivery session to the localbrowser for displaying at the client device 1106. The remote browser1104 may embed the image in the encapsulated HTML 1118, which is thensent (e.g., via the remote delivery session) to the client device 1106for rendering at the local browser 1108. The remote browser 1104 maysend the image separately from the encapsulated HTML 1118 (e.g., in aseparate HTTP or HTTPS message). The local browser 1108 may render theencapsulated HTML 1118 and display the webpage 1110 (e.g., based on theencapsulated HTML 1118 and including the image rendered at the remotebrowser 1104).

The client device 1106 may execute a local browser 1108. The clientdevice 1106 may include one or more elements of any embodiment of theclient device 402 described above in connection with at least FIGS. 4,5, 7, and 8. In some embodiments, the local browser 1108 may executewithin a client application. In some embodiments, the client applicationmay include one or more elements of any embodiment of the clientapplication 404 described above in connection with at least FIGS. 4 and8. In some embodiments, the local browser 1110 may include or correspondto an embedded browser. The embedded browser can executed in, or be partof a client application as discussed above in connection with at leastFIGS. 4 and 8. This client application with the embedded browser (CEB)can include any element or embodiment of a CEB as previously describedabove in connection with at least FIGS. 4 and 8. In some embodiments,the local browser 1110 may include or correspond to a third-partybrowser (e.g., INTERNET EXPLORER, FIREFOX, GOOGLE Chrome, SAFARI, etc.).The third-party browser may include or correspond to a standalonebrowser which can be downloaded, installed (e.g., natively), executed,hosted or otherwise run on the client device 1106.

The local browser 1108 may receive the encapsulated HTML 1118 via theremote delivery session. The local browser 1108 may download theencapsulated HTML 1118 from the server(s) 1102 (e.g., to local memory onthe client device 1106). The local browser 1108 may generate a DOM ofthe encapsulated HTML 1120 (sometimes referred to as a local ShadowDOM). In this regard, the system 1100 may include two DOMS; a DOM of theHTML 1114 based on the HTML 1112 from the server hosting the webpage,and a DOM of the encapsulated HTML 1120 based on the encapsulated HTML1118 from the transcoding agent 1116. The DOM of the encapsulated HTML1120 may provide, include or maintain a tree structure for theencapsulated HTML 1118. Each node in the tree structure may represent anobject of the document (e.g., a portion of the document, a window of thedocument, an image or text within the document, etc.) as represented inand/or by the encapsulated HTML 1118. The tree structure may representthe entire document, with individual nodes representing objects withinthe document.

The local browser 1108 may render the encapsulated HTML 1118 generatedby the transcoding agent 1116. The local browser 1108 may parse theencapsulated HTML 1118 to render the encapsulated HTML 1118 to pixels(e.g., pixel or image form) for displaying on the client device 1106.The local browser 1108 may render a basic/sanitized/safe version of thewebpage 1110 as reflected/represented in the encapsulated HTML 1118.

The local browser 1108 may be designed or implemented to detect,register, generate, and/or identify events. The events may be detected,registered, identified, etc., within the DOM of the encapsulated HTML1120. The events may correspond to (e.g., may occur in or apply to) theDOM of the encapsulated HTML 1120. In some embodiments, the events mayinclude or correspond to HTML events which register actions by the localbrowser 1108 and/or actions by a user. Various examples of HTML eventsinclude (but are not limited to) onchange (e.g., an HTML element haschanged), onclick (e.g., the user clicks an HTML element), onmouseover(e.g., the user moves the mouse over an HTML element), onmouseout (e.g.,the user moves the mouse away from an HTML element), onkeydown (the userpushes a keyboard key), and onload (the local browser 1108 has finishedloading the page). Such HTML events may be registered, intercepted,detected, and/or identified by the local browser 1108.

In some embodiments, the events may include DOM object events. The localbrowser 1108 may include a Document Object Model (DOM) event listenerwhich registers DOM events (such as mouse DOM events, keyboard DOMevents, HTML frame/object/form DOM events, and/or other user interfaceDOM events). The DOM event listener may register these DOM events whenthey occur within a page rendered on the local browser 1108. In eachembodiment, the local browser 1108 may generally detect, monitor, trackfor, or identify events corresponding to the encapsulated HTML 1120,which may be or include HTML events and/or DOM events.

The local browser 1108 may be configured to communicate the events(e.g., the DOM events and/or HTML events) to the transcoding agent 1116.The local browser 1108 may communicate the events (e.g., informationabout the events) as they are detected, identified, registered, etc.(e.g., in real-time or near real-time). The local browser 1108 maycommunicate (or mirror) the events to the remote browser via a remotedelivery session. In some embodiments, the local browser 1108 maycommunicate the events across the same channel as the channel in whichthe encapsulated HTML 1118 is received. In some embodiments, the localbrowser 1108 may communicate the events across a different channel(e.g., within the same or different remote delivery session) as thechannel in which the encapsulated HTML 1118 is received.

The transcoding agent 1116 may be configured to receive the events(e.g., the DOM events and/or HTML events) from the local browser 1108(e.g., via the remote delivery session). The remote browser 1104 may beconfigured to cause the received events to execute on the DOM of theHTML 1114 (e.g., the DOM provided by the remote browser 1104). Theremote browser 1104 may update, revise, modify, etc., the DOM of theHTML 1114 to reflect the received events. The revised DOM of the HTML1114 may be used for revising the DOM of the encapsulated HTML 1120. Insome embodiments, the transcoding agent 1116 may be configured toencapsulate the revised DOM of the HTML 1114 (e.g., in a manner similarto the transcoding agent 1116 encapsulating the DOM of the HTML 1114described above). In this regard, the transcoding agent 1116 mayre-encapsulate the DOM of the HTML 1114 to reflect the revised DOM basedon the HTML/DOM events from the local browser 1108. In some embodiments,the transcoding agent 1116 may generate and send one or more updates tothe previously-encapsulated HTML 1118 (e.g., prior to the event from thelocal browser 1108 being reflected in the DOM of the HTML 1114). In thisregard, the transcoding agent 1116 may not necessarily fully encapsulatethe DOM of the HTML 1115—the transcoding agent 1116 may modify (orprovide instructions to the local browser 1108 for modifying orupdating) the previously-conveyed encapsulated HTML 1118 in accordancewith the event from the local browser 1108.

The local browser 1108 may render the encapsulated HTML 1118, includingthe updates thereto, based on the event(s) communicated to thetranscoding agent 1116. Therefore, the local browser 1108 maycommunicate events to the transcoding agent 1116, and the local browsermay render the encapsulated HTML 1118 including the updates based on theevent(s) communicated to the transcoding agent 1116. In someembodiments, the local browser 1108 may construct a new DOM of theencapsulated HTML 1120 based on the updated encapsulated HTML 1118. Insome embodiments, the local browser 1108 may revise the previous DOM ofthe encapsulated HTML 1120 in accordance with the updates orinstructions from the transcoding agent 1116. The local browser 1108 mayrender the encapsulated HTML 1118 (including the updates thereto) topixels for displaying at the client device 1106.

Referring to FIG. 12, depicted a flow diagram of one example embodimentof a method 1200 for encapsulating HyperText Markup Language (HTML). Thefunctionalities of the method may be implemented using, or performed by,the components detailed herein in connection with FIGS. 1-11. In briefoverview, a remote browser can provide a Document Object Model (DOM) ofHTML (1205). A transcoding agent can encapsulate the HTML (1210). Thetranscoding agent can send the encapsulated HTML for rendering (1215).The transcoding agent can receive events (1220). The embedded browsercan cause the events to execute (1225).

Referring now to operation (1205), and in some embodiments, a remotebrowser can provide a DOM. In some embodiments, the remote browser maybe hosted on a server. The remote browser may provide the DOM of theHTML of a webpage rendered by the remote browser at the server. Theserver hosting the remote browser may be communicably coupled to aserver which hosts the webpage. The server hosting the remote browsermay communicate with the server hosting the webpage via a communicationsprotocol such as HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), HyperText TransferProtocol Secure (HTTPS), etc. The server hosting the remote browser mayreceive the HTML for the webpage from the server hosting the webpage,via or using the communications protocol. The remote browser executingon the server may request, call for, retrieve, access, etc., the HTMLfor the webpage. The remote browser may request, call for, access,retrieve, etc., the HTML for the webpage in response to a userrequesting the webpage (e.g., on a local browser executing on a clientdevice operated by the user).

The remote browser may generate, create, maintain, or otherwise providea document object model (DOM) of the HTML responsive to or uponreceiving the HTML. The DOM may include, provide or correspond to anapplication programming interface (API) that provides, generates ormaintains a tree structure for HTML, XHTML, and/or XML documents (e.g.,the HTML for the webpage). Each node in the tree structure may representan object of the document (e.g., a portion of the document, a window ofthe document, an image or text within the document, etc.). The treestructure may represent the entire document, with individual nodesrepresenting objects within the document. As the document is visuallyupdated (e.g., by user interactions with the document), the DOM maycorrespondingly be updated. For instance, where a user selects a buttonor hyperlink, enlarges a window, changes a color, etc., suchinteractions may be reflected in the DOM.

In some embodiments, the remote browser may be or include an embeddedbrowser or secure browser. The embedded browser or secure browser mayprovide access to a web application. The webpage may be provided by theweb application. The embedded browser/secure browser may access networkapplications and/or webpages (e.g., a page provided by the webapplication). Where the remote browser is a secure browser, the securebrowser may render the network applications and/or webpages toeffectively subject those network applications and/or webpages tosecurity mechanisms implemented by the secure browser for instance.These network applications can be considered to be contained (e.g.,securely) within a secure container. The use of such a secure browsercan enable an enterprise to implement a content filtering policy inwhich, for example, employees are blocked from accessing certain websites directly from their client devices. The secure browser can beused, for example, to enable client device users to access a corporateintranet without the need for a VPN.

In some embodiments, the remote browser may receive the HTML of thewebpage, and may render the received HTML at the server. The remotebrowser may render the received HTML at the server hosting the remotebrowser. For instance, the remote browser may download the HTML from theserver hosting the webpage. The remote browser may download the HTML to,for instance, local memory at the server hosting the remote browser. Theremote browser may parse the HTML to render the HTML at the server(e.g., on the remote browser).

In some embodiments, the remote browser may render a portion of the HTMLinto an image corresponding to one or more pixels. The remote browsermay render the portion of the HTML in response to various conditions.The remote browser may render the portion of the HTML based on computingefficiency (e.g., where it would be more efficient for the portion ofthe HTML to be rendered at the server-side as opposed to the clientside). The remote browser may render the portion of the HTML based onvarious security measures (e.g., according to policy controls). As oneexample, the remote browser may render the portion of the HTML for animage containing a hyperlink to prevent users from selecting the imageand following the hyperlink. As another example, the remote browser mayrender a portion of the HTML when the local browser is incapable ofrendering the specific portion. For instance, the remote browser mayreceive an indication (e.g., from the local browser) indicating thecapabilities of the local browser. The local browser may provide a listor description of available resources, plug-ins, etc. The remote browsermay determine, based on the capabilities of the local browser, that thelocal browser is not capable of rendering a specific portion of theHTML. The remote browser may render such a portion of the HTML.

Referring now to operation (1210), and in some embodiments, atranscoding agent can encapsulate the HTML. The transcoding agent mayexecute in the remote browser. The transcoding agent executing in theremote browser may encapsulate the HTML (e.g., the HTML provided atoperation (1205)). The transcoding agent may be configured toencapsulate the HTML by transcoding, rewriting, modifying, changing orreconfiguring the HTML (sometimes generally referred to as transcodingor encapsulating the HTML). The transcoding agent may be configured totranscode the HTML from one coded representation to another codedrepresentation. The transcoding agent may be configured to transcode theHTML to an encapsulated HTML. The encapsulated HTML may provide orrepresent a shell, or a protected, or otherwise shielded version orrepresentation of the HTML.

The transcoding agent may generate, create, build, construct, orotherwise provide the encapsulated HTML using at least one webcomponents API, e.g., Shadow DOM and/or custom element. For instance,the web components API may include webcomponents.js toolset or anotherHTML toolset, that can provide various HTML constructs to replacecertain HTML code. For example, the transcoding agent may provide theencapsulated HTML using one or more Shadow DOM and/or custom elementconstructs. The Shadow DOM or custom element constructs may form orimplement a “shell” for the HTML. The Shadow DOM or custom element mayshield or partially shield the HTML from being exposed to, for instance,JAVASCRIPT manipulation. The Shadow DOM or custom element may preserveat least a portion of the HTML of the webpage. In preserving the HTMLfor the webpage, the Shadow DOM or custom element may block certaininteractions with the page that may modify underlying code of the pageand/or the client device (or client application). Hence, the Shadow DOMor custom element may generate or form a more basic, shielded,sanitized, controllable, manageable and/or safer version of the webpage(e.g., as compared to the original webpage and/or the original webpage'scorresponding HTML or DOM).

The transcoding agent may be configured to provide the encapsulated HTMLso as to block JAVASCRIPT or extensions from the reacting to events(e.g., HTML events or DOM events). As described below, the local browsermay maintain a DOM of the encapsulated HTML. The encapsulated HTML fromthe transcoding agent may cause JAVASCRIPT or extensions in the DOM ofthe encapsulated HTML to be blocked from reacting to events, such asHTML events or DOM events, from the local browser. As one example, auser may select a button on what appears to the user as an advertisementvideo. In some instances without encapsulation of the correspondingHTML, when the user selects a button (and the corresponding event isdetected), the video would play. However, the same event (e.g.,corresponding to the selection of the button) in a DOM of anencapsulated HTML can be blocked, thus preventing the DOM from reactingto the event (e.g., updating the page based on the detected event).

The transcoding agent may be configured to provide the encapsulated HTMLto cause a call to browser services to be intercepted in the DOM of theencapsulated HTML. Browser services may be or include a centralizeddatabase, server, and/or computer having a map of local resources, suchas notification, history, XMLHttpRequest (XHR), cached data, history,notifications, etc., across various client devices within the network.The transcoding agent may provide, use, generate, etc., custom elementsto modify code corresponding to certain objects in the DOM (e.g., theDOM for the HTML) for various aspects of the webpage to re-route,intercept, ignore, disregard and/or reject any calls to browserservices. For instance, these objects in a DOM may include embedded codewhich requests, calls, or otherwise retrieves data from browser serviceswhen the objects are selected (e.g., such as a hyperlink). Such objectsmay then report the data from browser services to a third-party, whichmay include confidential or otherwise private data. The transcodingagent may modify such objects in the DOM by hooking (e.g., insertingcode, revising the code, and/or re-coding) the object prototypecorresponding to those objects. Such embodiments may preserve data inbrowser services by maintaining confidentiality, privacy, etc.

Referring now to operation (1215), and in some embodiments, thetranscoding agent can send the encapsulated HTML for rendering. Thetranscoding agent may send, convey or provision the encapsulated HTML toa client device or local browser via a remote delivery session forrendering. The local browser may execute on a client device. The localbrowser may maintain a DOM for the encapsulated HTML. In someembodiments, the local browser may execute within a client application.In some embodiments, the local browser may include or correspond to anembedded browser (e.g., embedded within the client application). In someembodiments, the local browser may include or correspond to athird-party browser (e.g., INTERNET EXPLORER, FIREFOX, GOOGLE Chrome,SAFARI). The third-party browser may be a standalone browser which canbe downloaded, installed (e.g., natively), executed, or otherwise run onthe client device.

The local browser may receive the encapsulated HTML via a remotedelivery session. The server hosting the embedded browser and/or clientdevice may establish a connection between the server forcommunicating/receiving the encapsulated HTML. The server and/or clientdevice may include a networking agent. The networking agent mayestablish, create, generate, or otherwise form one or more connectionsbetween the server and the client device. The networking agent canestablish or facilitate establishment of a network connection betweenthe server and the client device. The networking agent can performhandshaking for a requested connection between the server and clientdevice, and can establish the requested connection. In some embodiments,the networking agent may establish a secure or encrypted connection,such as a virtual private network (VPN) or a secure socket layer (SSL)VPN between the server and client device. Such VPN connections can carryMICROSOFT Exchange traffic, MICROSOFT Active Directory traffic,HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) traffic, HyperText Transfer ProtocolSecure (HTTPS) traffic, as some examples. In some embodiments, thenetworking agent may establish a secure HTTP (e.g., HTTPS) session in amanner similar to the secure connections described above. The serverand/or client device may be designed or implemented to initiate a remotedelivery session to deliver and/or receive, for instance, theencapsulated HTML. The server and/or client device may initiate theremote delivery session within or across the network connectionestablished by the networking agent. In some embodiments, a remotesession agent is embodied in, included in, or located on the serverand/or client device. The remote session agent may initiate the remotedelivery session in response to a user calling a resource (e.g., thewebpage) at the client device (e.g., via the local browser).

The local browser may download or receive the encapsulated HTML from theserver hosting the remote browser (e.g., to local memory on the clientdevice). The local browser may generate a DOM of the encapsulated HTML(e.g., a local Shadow DOM). The DOM of the encapsulated HTML may provideor include a tree structure for the encapsulated HTML, similar to theDOM provided by the remote browser (e.g., at operation (1205)). Eachnode in the tree structure may represent an object of the document(e.g., a portion of the document, a window of the document, an image ortext within the document) as represented in and/or by the encapsulatedHTML. The tree structure may represent the entire document described ordefined by the encapsulated HTML, with individual nodes representingobjects within the document. As the document is visually updated (e.g.,by user interactions with the document or webpage), the DOM maycorrespondingly be updated. For instance, where a user selects a buttonor hyperlink, enlarges a window, changes a color, etc., via a webinterface of the document, such interactions may be reflected in theDOM.

The local browser may render the encapsulated HTML generated by thetranscoding agent. The local browser may parse the encapsulated HTML torender the encapsulated HTML to pixels for displaying on the clientdevice. The local browser may parse the DOM maintained by the localbrowser to generate pixels (or images in pixel form or other form) fordisplaying at the client device. The local browser may render abasic/sanitized/safe version of the webpage as reflected/represented inthe encapsulated HTML.

In embodiments where the remote browser at the server renders a portionof the HTML into an image comprising one or more pixels, the transcodingagent may send the image via the remote delivery session to the localbrowser for display at the client device. Thus, the remote browser maybe configured to render a portion of the HTML and the local browser mayencapsulate another portion (e.g., the remaining portion) of the HTML.The remote browser may communicate, send, or otherwise provide the imagevia the remote delivery session to the local browser for displaying atthe client device. The remote browser may embed the image in theencapsulated HTML (e.g., encapsulated portion of the HTML), which isthen sent (e.g., via the remote delivery session) to the client device1106 for rendering at the local browser. The remote browser may send theimage separately from the encapsulated HTML (e.g., in a separate HTTP orHTTPS message). The local browser may receive the image from thetranscoding agent from or via the remote delivery session. In someinstances, the image may be received by the local browser from theremote browser within the encapsulated HTML. In some instances, theimage may be received by the local browser from the remote browserseparate from the encapsulated HTML. The local browser may render theencapsulated HTML and display the corresponding webpage (e.g., based onthe encapsulated HTML and including the image rendered at the remotebrowser).

Referring now to operation (1220), and in some embodiments, thetranscoding agent can receive events. In some embodiments, thetranscoding agent may receive events corresponding to the DOM maintainedby the local browser, from the local browser for instance. The localbrowser may detect, register, generate, and/or identify events. Theevents may be detected/registered/identified (e.g., by the localbrowser) within the DOM of the encapsulated HTML maintained by the localbrowser. The events may occur in, be directed to, or correspond to theDOM of the encapsulated HTML maintained by the local browser. In someembodiments, the events may include or correspond to HTML eventstriggered by or corresponding to actions by the local browser and/oractions by a user. Various examples of HTML events can include (but arenot limited to) onchange (e.g., an HTML element has changed), onclick(e.g., the user clicks an HTML element), onmouseover (e.g., the usermoves the mouse over an HTML element), onmouseout (e.g., the user movesthe mouse away from an HTML element), onkeydown (the user pushes akeyboard key), and onload (the local browser 1108 has finished loadingthe page). Such HTML events may be registered, intercepted, detected,and/or identified by the local browser. In some embodiments, the eventsmay be DOM object events. The local browser may include a DocumentObject Model (DOM) event listener which registers, detects and/orlistens for DOM events (such as mouse DOM events, keyboard DOM events,HTML frame/object/form DOM events, and/or other user interface DOMevents). The DOM event listener may register and/or detect these DOMevents when they occur within the page rendered on the local browser. Inthese embodiments, the local browser 1108 may identify eventscorresponding to the encapsulated HTML 1120, which may be or includeHTML events and/or DOM events.

The local browser may communicate the events (e.g., the DOM eventsand/or HTML events) to the transcoding agent. The local browser maycommunicate the events as they are detected, identified, registered,etc. (e.g., in real-time or near real-time). The local browser maycommunicate the events via the remote delivery session. The transcodingagent may receive the events (e.g., corresponding to the DOM maintainedby the local browser) via the remote delivery session. In someembodiments, the local browser may communicate the events using the samechannel of the remote delivery session as the channel in which theencapsulated HTML is received or communicated. In some embodiments, thelocal browser may communicate the events using a different channel(e.g., within the same or different remote delivery session) as thechannel in which the encapsulated HTML is received.

Referring now to operation (1225), and in some embodiments, the remotebrowser can cause the events to execute. In some embodiments, the remotebrowser can cause the received events to execute on the DOM provided bythe remote browser. The remote browser may be configured to cause thereceived events to execute on the DOM of the HTML (e.g., the DOMprovided by the remote browser at operation (1205)). The remote browsermay update, revise, modify, etc., the DOM of the HTML to reflect thereceived events. The revised DOM of the HTML may be used for revising orupdating the DOM of the encapsulated HTML. In some embodiments, thetranscoding agent may be configured to encapsulate the revised orupdated DOM of the HTML (e.g., in a manner similar to the transcodingagent encapsulating the DOM of the HTML described above with referenceto operation (1210)). The transcoding agent may re-encapsulate the DOMof the HTML to reflect the revised DOM, revised or updated based on theHTML/DOM events from the local browser (e.g., received at operation(1220)). In some embodiments, the transcoding agent may generate andsend one or more updates to the previously-encapsulated HTML (e.g., theencapsulated HTML described with reference to operation (1210) and priorto the event being received at operation (1220)). In this regard, thetranscoding agent may not necessarily encapsulate the entire revised DOMof the HTML for delivery to the local browser—the transcoding agent mayprovide modifications to (e.g., provide instructions or an incrementalupdate to the local browser for modifying or updating) thepreviously-encapsulated HTML in accordance with the event from the localbrowser.

The local browser may render the encapsulated HTML, incorporating theupdates thereto, based on the event(s) communicated to the transcodingagent. Therefore, the local browser may communicate events to thetranscoding agent (e.g., at operation (1220)), and the local browser mayrender the encapsulated HTML including the updates based on the eventscommunicated to the transcoding agent. In some embodiments, the localbrowser may construct a new DOM based on the updated encapsulated HTML.In some embodiments, the local browser may revise the previous DOM ofthe encapsulated HTML in accordance with the updates and/or instructionsreceived from the transcoding agent. The local browser may render theencapsulated HTML (including the updates thereto) to pixels (or othersuitable form) for displaying at the client device.

It should be understood that the systems described above may providemultiple ones of any or each of those components and these componentsmay be provided on either a standalone machine or, in some embodiments,on multiple machines in a distributed system. The systems and methodsdescribed above may be implemented as a method, apparatus or article ofmanufacture using programming and/or engineering techniques to producesoftware, firmware, hardware, or any combination thereof. In addition,the systems and methods described above may be provided as one or morecomputer-readable programs embodied on or in one or more articles ofmanufacture. The term “article of manufacture” as used herein isintended to encompass code or logic accessible from and embedded in oneor more computer-readable devices, firmware, programmable logic, memorydevices (e.g., EEPROMs, ROMs, PROMs, RAMs, SRAMs, etc.), hardware (e.g.,integrated circuit chip, Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA),Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), etc.), electronicdevices, a computer readable non-volatile storage unit (e.g., CD-ROM,USB Flash memory, hard disk drive, etc.). The article of manufacture maybe accessible from a file server providing access to thecomputer-readable programs via a network transmission line, wirelesstransmission media, signals propagating through space, radio waves,infrared signals, etc. The article of manufacture may be a flash memorycard or a magnetic tape. The article of manufacture includes hardwarelogic as well as software or programmable code embedded in a computerreadable medium that is executed by a processor. In general, thecomputer-readable programs may be implemented in any programminglanguage, such as LISP, PERL, C, C++, C#, PROLOG, or in any byte codelanguage such as JAVA. The software programs may be stored on or in oneor more articles of manufacture as object code.

While various embodiments of the methods and systems have beendescribed, these embodiments are illustrative and in no way limit thescope of the described methods or systems. Those having skill in therelevant art can effect changes to form and details of the describedmethods and systems without departing from the broadest scope of thedescribed methods and systems. Thus, the scope of the methods andsystems described herein should not be limited by any of theillustrative embodiments and should be defined in accordance with theaccompanying claims and their equivalents.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for encapsulating hypertext markuplanguage (HTML), the method comprising: generating, by a remote browserhosted on a server, a document object model (DOM) of HTML of a webpagerendered by the remote browser at the server; causing, by a transcodingagent executing in the remote browser, a local DOM to block execution ofan event on the local DOM, the event corresponding to a user actionreceived by a local browser, by encapsulating the HTML, the local DOMcomprising a DOM for the encapsulated HTML; sending, by the transcodingagent, the encapsulated HTML via a remote delivery session to the localbrowser for rendering, wherein the local browser executes on a clientdevice and maintains the local DOM for the encapsulated HTML; receiving,by the transcoding agent from the local browser, events different fromthe blocked event, corresponding to the local DOM maintained by thelocal browser; and causing, by the remote browser, the received eventsto execute on the DOM generated by the remote browser.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, comprising encapsulating the HTML by transcoding the HTML usingat least one web components application programming interface (API),wherein the at least one web components API comprises at least one of ashadow document object model or a custom element.
 3. The method of claim1, wherein the remote browser comprises an embedded browser or a securebrowser that provides access to a web application, and the webpage isprovided by the web application.
 4. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: receiving, by the remote browser, the HTML of the webpage;and rendering, by the remote browser at the server, the received HTML.5. The method of claim 1, comprising receiving, by the transcoding agentvia the remote delivery session, the events corresponding to the DOMmaintained by the local browser.
 6. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising rendering, by the remote browser at the server, a portion ofthe HTML into an image comprising one or more pixels.
 7. The method ofclaim 6, further comprising sending, by the transcoding agent, the imagevia the remote delivery session to the local browser for display at theclient device.
 8. The method of claim 1, comprising encapsulating theHTML to cause code or extensions in the local DOM maintained for theencapsulated HTML to be blocked from reacting to the blocked event. 9.The method of claim 1, comprising encapsulating the HTML to cause a callto browser services to be intercepted in the local DOM maintained forthe encapsulated HTML.
 10. The method of claim 1, comprising causing thelocal browser to render at least a portion of the encapsulated HTML intopixels for display at the client device.
 11. A system for encapsulatinghypertext markup language (HTML), the system comprising: a servercomprising circuitry configured to execute a remote browser, the remotebrowser configured to generate a document object model (DOM) of HTML ofa webpage rendered by the remote browser at the server, the remotebrowser configured to execute a transcoding agent configured to cause alocal DOM to block execution of an event on the local DOM, the eventcorresponding to a user action received by a local browser, byencapsulating the HTML, the local DOM comprising a DOM for theencapsulated HTML; send the encapsulated HTML via a remote deliverysession to the local browser for rendering, wherein the local browserexecutes on a client device and maintains the local DOM for theencapsulated HTML; and receive, from the local browser, events differentfrom the blocked event, corresponding to the local DOM maintained by thelocal browser; wherein the remote browser is further configured to causethe received events to execute on the DOM generated by the remotebrowser.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the transcoding agent isconfigured to encapsulate the HTML by transcoding the HTML using atleast one web components application programming interface (API),wherein the at least one web components API comprises at least one of ashadow document object model or a custom element.
 13. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the remote browser comprises an embedded browser or asecure browser that provides access to a web application, and thewebpage is provided by the web application.
 14. The system of claim 11,wherein the remote browser is further configured to receive the HTML ofthe webpage, and to render the received HTML at the server.
 15. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the transcoding agent is configured toreceive, via the remote delivery session, the events corresponding tothe DOM maintained by the local browser.
 16. The system of claim 11,wherein the remote browser is further configured to render, at theserver, a portion of the HTML into an image comprising one or morepixels.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein the transcoding agent isconfigured to send the image via the remote delivery session to thelocal browser for display at the client device.
 18. The system of claim11, wherein the transcoding agent is configured to encapsulate the HTMLto cause code or extensions in the local DOM maintained for theencapsulated HTML to be blocked from reacting to the events.
 19. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the transcoding agent is configured toencapsulate the HTML to cause a call to browser services to beintercepted in the local DOM maintained for the encapsulated HTML. 20.The system of claim 11, wherein the local browser renders at least aportion of the encapsulated HTML into pixels for display at the clientdevice.